


A Ride on Horseback

by lzclotho



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, F/F, Prompt Fic, Seduction, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-24
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2017-11-12 11:01:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/490155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lzclotho/pseuds/lzclotho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt response: Regina teaches Emma to ride a horse. Rated M for Swan Queen sex.</p>
<p>Well, that was the way this STARTED. Now it's become something kinda epic, involving time travel, alternate timelines, and a lot of problems for Emma to resolve before everyone can have the happy ending they deserve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Ride on Horseback

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Laura D for giving this first part a once-over!

"I am never going to figure this out," Emma picked herself up from the ground for the hundredth time, dusting off her leathers and staring up into the face of the bay horse sniffing around her hips. The horse master at the royal stables said he had given her the most docile horse available to ride. Turning, she realized she could only just see the turret tops of White Castle.

Refusing to be embarrassed in front of either her son or her parents, Emma had taken to daily rides alone. She'd finally managed well enough to take a horse at a walking pace outside the bailey walls, gripping the prominent war pommel white-knuckled, but she'd done it. She had been trying to learn to steady her balance and increase the horse's speed.

But it had been almost a month and she was no closer to staying astride for more than a few steps than she had been the first day when James, her father, hoisted her up in the saddle, promising she would take to it "like a native."

She wasn't a native, far from it. Emma felt more and more disconnected from this world without running water or electricity every day that passed. What she wouldn't give for a simple scooter!

She wrestled with the stirrup and managed to get her foot into it before the horse sidestepped, and she fell with a thump onto her back. Her booted foot remained caught in the stirrup. She groaned and started to reach to loose herself.

"Having difficulties, Miss Swan?"

From her position on the ground, Emma's gaze snapped over her shoulder as she pushed up onto her elbows. She was staring upside down at a leather-clad Regina Mills astride a gorgeous and big black stallion. Black gloved hands negligently held the reins across the horse's withers. She could see the stallion's breaths puffing his nostrils wide and his sides were heaving slightly. The woman's riding boot was knee high and snugly fit to her calf. From there, Emma traced up a leather-clad leg and took in the woman's riding outfit. She wore a mix of red and black leather which accentuated each curve to perfection and the elegant hat atop her black hair, which she still wore in the short familiar style of her Storybrooke days, with its crimson feather made the cream color of her skin even more apparent. Brown eyes and the inquisitive twitch upward of a dark brow captured Emma's gaze.

As casually as possible, Emma asked, "What brings you by?" While talking, she managed to separate her boot from the stirrup and stagger to her feet. Even from this new vantage she could see the former queen sat her horse with ease.

Regina waved a gloved hand. "Just taking in the beauty of the morning," she said, her tone casual, her gaze studying Emma with what could only be called lazy interest.

Emma boldly stepped up to the black horse, laying a hand on its withers, near but not touching gloved hands nor reins, as she looked up to meet dark brown eyes. "Is that so?"

Regina's deeply red lips quirked. Not quite a smile, but Emma hadn't really tried to cause one. Yet.

"You seem rather far from home, princess," Regina said.

"Needed some space," Emma replied. She wasn't about to tell this woman that the whole reason she was determined to learn to ride, and do so alone was so that she could set out to find out what Regina had done with herself since the Oz-like cyclone had swept them all back here. No one else in White Castle cared, and Emma had worried when days, then weeks, passed, and Regina had not been reported seen or heard from by any of the forest scouts.

"Well, then I shall leave you to your solitude." Regina lifted her hand and gave the slightest twitch to her wrist. Under her expert guidance the horse stepped away from Emma and began to turn back in the direction from which Regina had come.

"Regina!" Emma called toward the woman's back. The horse stopped, but neither it nor its rider turned. Emma took a breath. Gently she added, "Henry's all right."

There was a tiny twitch of the horse's tail. Emma looked up. Maybe she imagined it, but Regina's back looked a little stiffer.

"He misses you."

The horse's right rear foot shifted on the ground. But Regina still did not turn.

Emma's gaze traced up the regally straight back. "I... Are you all right?"

"The Blue Fairy has seen fit to erect wards around my land, protecting me in ways she did not when I was last here," Regina stated, her voice devoid of any emotion that Emma could discern.

"Wards? Does that mean you can't get down off your horse here?"

Regina turned and her face registered absurdity. "You really have no idea how anything works here, do you?"

"Everyone expects I already know!" Emma retorted.

Regina turned her horse around once again then dismounted, dropping with easy balance to her boots on the grass. Holding the reins in one hand, she closed the distance to stand before Emma, who looked at her with a plea plain in her gaze.

"I could teach you to ride," Regina said.

"Why?"

"Because the challenge intrigues me."

"I'm a challenge to you?"

"You always were, dear."

The deadpan delivery made Emma laugh. Regina simply stood quietly. "All right. Fine. So, where do I start?"

"Let me help you mount."

"You gonna throw me over the back so I land on my head on the other side?"

"Are you willing to take the chance?" Regina held her gaze.

Emma desperately wanted to learn to ride. Henry had taken to the skill like he was born to it. Emma was seriously feeling out of her element. Just maybe conquering this basic skill would settle some of her other issues.

But to trust Regina?

Searching her feelings, Emma knew that she did. She hadn't wanted to look for Regina just for Henry's sake, but for her own. She'd missed her. She always felt they had been on the brink of... something in Storybrooke, but circumstances being what they were...

She had come out here seeking Regina and, piecing together the evidence, she realized Regina had been coming out to find her, having spurred her horse when Emma fell. Maybe they did both want the same thing.

She felt the corners of her lips tilt up as she searched the dark brown gaze. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"All right." Regina moved alongside her stallion's withers looking toward his hindquarters and cupped her hands, interlacing her fingers. "Grab the pommel and put your outside foot here."

Emma knew this part. However as she started to launch herself, Regina unlaced her hands, causing Emma to nose forward almost slamming face first into the saddle. "Hey!"

"No. Don't kick off the ground. Pull yourself up with your arms. You'll have more control."

Emma nodded. "All right. Let me try again."

This time she found herself at waist height leaning over the saddle with Regina leveraging her left foot. "Once your hips are clear," Regina instructed, "slide your right leg over the saddle." Emma felt the pull in her thighs and the strain on her shoulders, but in another moment she was sitting astride Regina's stallion, holding the pommel.

Regina grasped the reins, a fistful of mane, and the back curve of the saddle before lifting and settling herself in a single smooth motion behind Emma.

Emma felt Regina's thighs press against the backs of her legs and the cradle of the brunette's hips slide firmly against her rear. "Hey, I thought you were going to teach me to ride?"

"I am teaching you." Regina adjusted her seating. Their intimate proximity caused Emma's hips to cant forward, under her back, aligning her spine. "Riding is all about balance. Find yours by finding the horse's center of balance and going with it, not fighting it."

"Well, it's all well and good right now. We haven't started moving," Emma countered, still gripping the pommel tightly.

"We'll get to that. Let go of the pommel. Take the reins." Regina's arms lifted around Emma, bringing the reins near Emma's hands. The move felt surprisingly like a reassuring hug.

Emma turned her head, catching Regina's eye over her shoulder. The brunette gave a small nod. Emma looked down as she lifted her hands from the pommel and moved them quickly to the reins, shifting over Regina's gloved hands.

The woman's breath slid across her ear, causing a shiver down Emma's spine as she adjusted their mutual hold so that Emma's hands were inside, on the reins, and Regina's were outside, simply cupping the backs of Emma's hands. The black leather was soft and warm and the reins felt rough against her palms. "There you go," Regina said, her breath once again whispering across the nape of Emma's neck.

"Now what?" Emma asked.

"Eyes front, look between the horse's ears. Gently turn your right wrist outward. See his right ear twitch?" Regina added as she felt Emma's hand do as instructed.

"Yeah."

"Now, relax that hand, and twitch the left outward."

"His left ear twitched."

"There you go, you're communicating. With a well-trained horse there is no need to yank them around," Regina said. "Using gentle motions should be more than enough, and that includes your legs."

Regina put her feet to the outside of Emma's causing her legs to align with the blonde's. "To move directly forward, squeeze with equal pressure slowly with your thighs." She demonstrated, pushing Emma's thighs with her own.

God the woman's legs were strong, Emma thought. The horse started walking. This part she understood.

But Regina wasn't done. Emma's back had slid out of alignment. Releasing one of Emma's hands, the former queen splayed her palm across Emma's abdomen over the thin linen of her shirt. The touch startled Emma, but the firm hand shoved Emma easily back into the cradle of Regina's pelvis, until she felt the woman's breasts against her back and the heat of her belly against her rear. "Keep yourself tucked in, Miss Swan."

Hot moist air moving against her ear, warm body at her back, the motion of the horse between her thighs, and Regina's hand still spread wide against her stomach all conspired to make Emma breathless. "Got it."

"Now, let's move the lesson along, shall we?" Regina said. "Guide Volare left." Emma gave a twist of her left hand. The horse immediately responded, its left shoulder dipping as it stepped into the turning motion. She felt the sensation of its center of balance shifting and stiffened up, afraid to fall. Regina's palm in her stomach moved slightly, completely distracting Emma and suddenly she felt she was no longer sliding off. "Feel how the shift changed the position of your hips? Don't stiffen against it. Let it happen."

Regina directed Emma to twitch her right hand. The horse stepped into a right turn. Again Regina's arm and palm across her abdomen kept Emma in place. Back and forth they turned and walked. Emma began to feel each shift of the horse's balance and resist her inclination to stiffen. The sensation began to feel a bit like swinging, as though she wasn't so much riding as gliding over the ground. A smile curved her lips.

She felt something gently brush against her nape only to realize it was Regina's mouth. The brunette woman had just kissed her neck! Her pulse sped up. She started to move her right hand off the reins to cup Regina's against her waist.

The motion caused a tug on the reins and the horse made an unexpected right turn. Regina's hand left Emma's stomach and one hand grasped her thigh while the other caught the reins. "Hold," she said firmly and her legs slipped under Emma's, lessening the pressure exerted on the horse's sides.

"Sorry," Emma said.

Leaning into Emma's back, Regina returned her hand to Emma's stomach, setting off the butterflies again. "Nothing to apologize for," she murmured into Emma's hair. "Unless my... touch is unwelcome?"

Caught in a haze of sensation, Emma shook her head. "It's not."

Regina's lips returned to Emma's nape, slipping up to Emma's ear. "I'm very glad to hear that." Her splayed palm circled on Emma's stomach and Emma realized the tail of her shirt was pulling free of her pants.

"Shouldn't we... get down?" Emma murmured; Regina's mouth was nibbling at the soft skin of her ear, making speech, much less thought, more difficult.

"Relax. I won't let you fall," Regina murmured. Her fingers slipped beneath Emma's now loosened shirt, warm leather soothing against bare skin for the first time.

While she was talking, Regina had continued the soft circulations with her fingers, causing delicious tremors up and down Emma's spine which resonated deep into her sex. The blond head tilted back, resting against Regina's shoulder. "Oh god," she breathed.

The horse had begun moving again; the gliding motion was quickly back, and Regina's hand slipped slowly under the waistband of Emma's riding pants. A leather-covered finger slid through the hair covering Emma's mound and she sighed at the sensation, receiving a kiss to the underside of her jaw.

Quickly the leather-tipped finger became moist as it spread lower lips and slipped inside intimate folds. The friction from the motion quickly brought Emma to the edge. With the heel of Regina's hand rocking against her clit and one finger curling inside on each stroke, she could feel the crest of her orgasm building higher and higher just out of reach. She moaned, turning her head and kissing Regina's throat. Her kisses moved to Regina's chin as the brunette dropped her chin before meeting Emma's mouth in an open kiss. One finger became two, and Emma breathed her moans onto Regina's tongue.

The horse's motion changed underneath Emma, and she felt the wind increase its cool touches against her face. Regina's fingers within her matched the gliding motion. Without warning Emma's orgasm crested, crashing through her and sending undulating waves outward from where Regina stroked to each of her limbs and up through her chest where they vibrated from her throat in a series of increasing cries, all timed to Regina's strokes.

All motion gradually slowed, and Emma's cries diminished to soft moans. She lifted her arm and dazedly found the back of Regina's head, pulling the woman's mouth to hers for a deep kiss that left them both gasping for breath upon release.

She rested her forehead against Regina's cheek as she felt Regina's fingertips slowly withdrawing.

"Oh my god," Emma breathed. "Can I do that to you?"

Regina's chuckle was deep, vibrating in her chest behind Emma's shoulder blades. "Maybe after a few more lessons, princess."


	2. Ride Away With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many of my readers requested a follow up to "A Ride on Horseback," more "lessons" as it were. Inspiration struck. So, this time it's Regina's point of view, for Emma and Regina's second meeting in the hills just beyond White land. This one ended up with a tad more plot than the first one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again, to Laura D for beta services!

"You kept your seat for an entire league today, princess."

The blond head shot up from its preoccupation so quickly that the bay horse beneath sidestepped. Hands unused to the task nevertheless relaxed on the reins, thighs loosened, and the sidestepping stopped.

Regina bit her lip to arrest the smile trying to appear on her lips in response to the triumphant grin which broke across the flushed face of Emma Swan as the woman kept to her saddle.

A tingling arose in Regina's hands and at her fingers' flexing Volare, her ebony stallion, stamped the ground with a front leg. She spared not a glance to quieting her stallion, doing so automatically, while her gaze preferred to drink in every nuance of the princess.

Emma wore the clothes of this world, though she had not gone so far as the feminine gowns and unmarried woman's veil prescribed to her birthright as the daughter of White kingdom. Instead, as when last they met, Emma wore a light cotton tunic, snug at each wrist, lacing open at her throat, and shirt tail tucked into tanned leather trousers. Regina envied the tailor who must make the trousers fit snugly to the woman's firm curves. These were not the woman's skinny jeans of the other world, but they flattered her making Regina breathless with want as her heart quickened.

"Regina, you startled me," Emma said, green eyes flickering over Regina's face.

"Did you not expect to find me, princess?" Regina returned the considering look, noting the woman's heightened flush and the quickened pulse thrumming in her neck. Her voice dropped an octave as she bore her gaze into Emma's and dared to seek the truth. "Did you not venture forth specifically to seek me?"

Emma's wrist moved and the bay stepped alongside Regina's horse. The two horses' tails flicked at one another, as they stood nose to tail. Regina only had eyes for the gaze meeting hers. She felt the weight of a hand press against her thigh.

"You know I did." The blonde's lips moved around her words, but Regina almost did not hear them over the blood roaring in her ears.

 _God, but it has been three days_. For two days the world had bathed in rain, but Regina still ventured from the relative safety of her home in exile to hide in a copse of trees from which she could survey the valley stretching to White castle. Yesterday the sun had risen gloriously bright, so Regina had thought today certainly. From within her copse she waited restlessly as daybreak became mid-morning and later. At the strike of the midday bells in the village church tower, she had to concede that Emma would not be coming.

Regina had turned Volare's head and ordered him to frenetic speeds, trying to escape the bubble of pain expanding in her chest. Horse and rider had raced nearly the entire route home. Jumping fallen trees and ducking low branches, she fought to keep the bubble from bursting loose with the tears lodged in her throat and behind her eyes. When Volare splashed through the edge of the lake, she flung herself from his back and lay panting on the grass until hunger pains drove her home as the sun fell in the western sky.

Seeing the blonde now, feeling the touch of her green gaze all along her body, Regina had to know she was not the only one suffering from the length of their separation. She had to hear what Emma wanted. But she could not find it in herself to beg for the acknowledgment. She covered Emma's hand on her thigh and lifted it, feeling the loss of its heat even through her black leathers.

"You still wear no gloves," Regina scolded.

Emma turned her hand and instead closed it around Regina's. "And you never take yours off." Regina knew it to be an admonition in Emma's own way. But she could not allow herself to be vulnerable, not here.

"Not here," she whispered.

"Where then?"

Regina felt her face flush. "Follow me." A turn of her wrist and the press of a thigh eased Volare away from Emma's mount. Emma released her hand, but the reluctance evident as their fingers took long seconds to finally part caused a flutter in Regina's chest.

She glanced over her shoulder to watch Emma guide her bay into step behind Volare. The woman had learned her seat well from Regina's brief tutelage, keeping her back straight and hips gliding with the horse's motion.

Then Emma surprised her. She guided her bay wide. Regina caught the motion out of the corner of her eye, thinking the young woman on the verge of endangering herself. Instead Emma grasped the pommel with one hand and increased the pressure of her knees on the bay's flanks, pushing him into a jarring trot for several steps. When she was alongside Regina, she released the pressure and the bay settled back into a walk. Not pretty, but it had worked. Regina smiled.

Emma's bay and Regina's black walked stride for stride together through the forest. Emma reached her hand across the separation, palm toward the sky and invitation clear.

Regina placed her gloved hand into Emma's. Emma's fingertip circled on the exposed skin of Regina's wrist, sending heat deep along her arm to lodge in her chest. She looked to Emma's face and saw in the sunlight dancing in green eyes that Emma knew exactly what she was doing.

The warmth in her chest began to pool lower. The urge to run, but this time for the joy in her heart, pressed on Regina. "Care to run a bit, princess?"

Emma's jaw flexed, but her hands remained still on the reins. "All right."

"The trees will break shortly for a span ahead. The ground is level and we can give our horses their heads," Regina advised. "To maintain your seat, keep your heels down which will keep your legs snug without unintended pressure." Emma nodded. "If you're moving too fast, a brief pull on the reins will slow your mount. Do not saw at his mouth."

"I'm ready," Emma said, and Regina heard the bravado masking the uncertainty.

"I'll demonstrate first. Watch my hands and legs. Then I'll come back for you."

The treeline ended and a flat unbroken plain lay spread out before them. Regina conveyed through her hands and thighs for Volare to increase from a walk to the smooth gait of a canter. Within a few steps she was gliding over the ground, the wind slipping its cool fingers through her hair. Her desires eased off a bit as she felt the power of her stallion beneath her. More in control of her physical reaction to Emma, Regina returned to the blonde.

"Ready?"

Emma's bay sidestepped conveying Emma's nerves though she stated, "Ready."

"I'll be right alongside," Regina promised.

She watched as Emma issued the commands through her hands and thighs. Horse and rider began at a walk, but within just two strides, Regina saw Emma's knees tighten and the grip on the reins shift. The bay's strides lengthened and he was cantering. Emma did not sit as easily and her gloveless knuckles were white.

Too late Regina realized Emma's horse had taken the bit in his teeth and shifted from canter to gallop and then a wild run as Emma struggled to hold her seat. Emma's loose seat obviously scared him and he started turning toward White castle, heading down into the valley terrain. The blonde and the bay were a dozen horse lengths away and continuing to increase the separation.

Grasping Volare's reins in her left hand, Regina urged the black into a gallop, eating up the ground with his monstrous strides. Soon she reached for the bay's reins with her right hand. Emma clung to the side of the saddle. She grabbed Regina's arm and then her body when close enough.

"Let go of the saddle," Regina instructed firmly.

"Regina!" Emma loosened her legs from around the bay's saddle.

"Come here," Regina murmured. And if her heart was racing with fear, she studiously ignored it. Letting go of the bay's reins she wrapped her arm around Emma's back, pulling the woman onto Volare's back atop her own thighs. She hugged Emma to her with one arm as she guided Volare to a stop with the other. A glance ahead found the bay already slowing and turning back.

Emma threw her arms around Regina's neck; Regina snugly held the blonde to her, willing her heart to cease its hammering. She felt Emma's thundering as well. For both their sakes, she didn't release Emma to drop to the ground. "Throw a leg over," Regina said.

Instead of turning forward, Emma maintained her hold on Regina and placed her booted foot atop Regina's backward on the stirrup. With that bit of leverage she bent her inside knee and pulled it over to the other side, straddling Regina's thighs as she found her center of balance between the stallion's shoulders.

Finally Emma leaned back, shifting her hands to the leather at Regina's waist. "Thank you for catching me."

"You're welcome," Regina replied. She nodded toward the bay walking toward them. "Do you want to get back on your own horse?"

"I like this view." Emma's voice was teasing, light, and her lips curved in an unreserved smile.

"So do I," Regina replied throatily, already caught in the rising tide of arousal. Watching green eyes sparkle with flashes of sunlight, Regina canted her head. Emma grasped her waist more tightly and leaned into Regina's body, claiming her lips in an open mouthed kiss.

Delighting in the heat and moisture and taste of the blonde, Regina moaned. Emma's hands roamed, sliding up into Regina's hair causing tingles down her spine, then stroking the pulse in her throat. Finally, when they parted to breathe, Emma's fingertips caressed her lips.

"I just noticed something," Emma whispered, and Regina was enraptured watching Emma's mouth move as she spoke. How often had she been this close to those lips as they argued in Storybrooke and not tasted them? She must have been insane.

"What?" Regina asked, barely managing to vocalize the sound.

"Your riding outfit buttons up the front." Regina chuckled as Emma's touch firmed at several points, slipping each button from its hole.

Emma leaned back to increase the room for her fingers and Regina bowed her head, bringing her lips to Emma's exposed throat to taste the skin rich with the woman's natural scent. "Such a quick study, princess," she murmured, lips vibrating against flesh.

Her riding coat parted under Emma's fingers, revealing the white linen covering her breasts and held snugly to her curves with a soft leather bustier laced sternum to navel. When Emma's fingertips pressed to her rapidly heating skin Regina tipped back her head, lost in swirling depths of sensation. Emma didn't bother with loosening the ties, instead pulling down the linen to feast.

Gasping, Regina's hand tightened on Volare's reins, unable to keep focused on controlling the horse as her body shuddered with delight caused by Emma's mouth on her body. The stallion sidestepped, then shifted his weight to start walking forward. Releasing the reins, Regina wrapped both arms around Emma as she felt herself losing her seat. The blonde relaxed into the contact, in surprising trust that the brunette wouldn't let her get hurt.

Regina fulfilled that trust, softening their landing with a mere thought, creating a cushion of air beneath them. Still the ground was solid when they stopped what with Emma landing atop Regina.

Lifting herself away, Emma was chuckling. "You all right?" she asked.

"Fine." Regina rose to her elbows, coat gaping. "You?"

"You wanna get back on?" Emma asked, reaching out and stroking a bared nipple. Regina fell back, feeling stalked by the hunger sparkling in green eyes.

"Later." Regina growled and grabbed Emma, pulling her down into the grass with her. Mouths crashed together in a heady and playful duel for dominance. Pushing Emma up, Regina pulled the blonde's blouse free of her trousers and drank her fill of creamy skin, stroking at the tight abs of the fit young woman, as the blonde stripped the top off over her head.

Emma caught one of Regina's hands from her waist and teethed at the leather tips of the fingers with a smile. She gave a tug and lifted a brow asking silently for permission. Regina gave it with a dip of her chin. Bit by bit, and only using her teeth, Emma relieved Regina of first one glove, then the other.

Then she placed the bared hands back on her stomach. Regina needed no coaxing, feeling now the unblocked warmth and satin of the skin of Emma's belly. She made feather-light strokes up to the handfuls of breasts, trapping taut nipples between her fingertips only to smooth away, down to the waistband of Emma's trousers, and in a powerful grasp, she encircled the woman's waist, kneading with her hands and gripping the muscles of Emma's back.

Regina's world filled with the fall of golden hair when Emma fell forward and plied lips, teeth, and now hands, to bare Regina to the waist. Her coat and bustier became their protection from the damp ground. Her linen was pushed to her waist. She cupped the blonde head to her chest with one hand and stroked the warm muscles of Emma's back with the other as each of their thighs rocked into one another's centers.

She marveled as the swelling of her center continued, and yet Emma's touch did not leave her chest, nor did their pants come off. Sensation swamped Regina and with a cry torn from her throat, she felt her fulfillment soak her underthings. Pressed as she was to Emma she also felt the moment the blonde woman peaked, long limbs shaking, forehead falling against Regina's shoulder, wet eyes pressing into the swell of Regina's breast, kisses pressing repeatedly near her nipple.

She pressed her own tear-damp face into Emma's hair, leaving kisses on the top of her head as she held on with all she had within her of happiness.

The midday sun warmed their sweaty skin. Butterflies fluttered above their grassy haven. Emma drew fanciful patterns with a fingertip on Regina's bare back as they spooned together. Both woman still wore their riding pants, Emma her trousers and Regina her leathers.

"Should you be getting home?" Regina asked. She didn't want Emma to leave, but knew if the White princess went missing for very long, Snow and James would immediately suspect her hand in it. Although, she thought with a chuckle as she stroked the back of Emma's arm wrapped around her chest, probably not in this way.

"Where's home?" Emma asked against the bare skin of Regina's shoulder, the vibration more than the sound conveying her question.

Regina tensed. Was Emma saying what she thought she was saying? "Are you unhappy?"

"Here? Now? No. But..." Emma trailed off.

Regina turned onto her back and looked up into Emma's face. She waited in silence for the blonde to find the words to express herself, their bare fingers interlaced on her belly.

"Nothing here feels right. I still wake up every morning and wish..." Emma's voice trailed off and she shook her head as if to silence her thoughts.

Regina curled her fingers around Emma's wrist, drawing her attention. "What do you wish for, princess?"

"People who don't call me princess." Emma sat up, wrapping an arm around her upraised knee.

Regina sat up, stroking the now stiff line of Emma's back. "All right."

"You can't be happy here, trapped within your wards and all. Regina, run away with me?" Regina didn't know what to say, and Emma was apparently so anxious she didn't wait for a reply. "I know. I know. It's insane. Even if I could run, there's no way back."

Regina's heart stuttered. "You want to go back to Storybrooke?" _You want to leave?_ her mind cried out.

"I don't fit in here. I wasn't cut out to be royalty. I can't sit on my hands and look pretty all day. There, even though I lived close to the edge, I made my own way. Here... what am I good for? People bow and curtsy and think I'm something special."

"You are," Regina said. "And you can make being royalty anything you want it to mean."

"I feel so...!" Giving off a roar of displeasure, Emma frantically put on her shirt and leaped to her feet.

Regina forewent her bustier, only pulling on her riding coat over her linen top and followed. "Don't change yourself. Make them understand who you are now."

"They can't make up their minds. Am I a child to be coddled, or the Savior, untouchable?"

Wrapping her arms around Emma's waist from behind, Regina nuzzled the golden throat leaving it with a soft kiss. "Definitely a lover to be coddled," she teased softly.

Emma turned in her embrace. Her green eyes showed her distress but then shaded with purpose. "If I hadn't been the Savior and you hadn't been the Evil Queen... Could we have ever just been Emma and Regina and shared Henry?"

Regina tucked a falling golden lock of hair behind a delicate ear. She thought about the moment she'd first met Emma Swan on her front steps in Storybrooke. The young woman had appeared earnest and embarrassed that Henry had found her. If she hadn't been the Evil Queen, paranoid and in the middle of losing her son's love, could their relationship have been different?

Here she was no longer the evil queen. She was no longer really anything, and yet this woman had sought her out. Not once, but twice. Simply to be with her.

"I think maybe we could," she finally answered the question, "Emma."


	3. Taking the Reins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing to meet in secret, Emma and Regina discover that there is a little magic in some restraint, and the women end up back in the past of the Enchanted Forest, on a day Regina will never forget. Emma's presence, however, means big changes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In other venues online, this story is a separate file. After starting with what should have remained PWP (purely smutty SQ) this idea grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. So, I've added it. There are now time travel tropes at play here, as well as some complications in the relationships of Emma/Regina, as well as Emma/Regina/Daniel, and Emma will also be dealing with parental issues as the daughter of Snow and David.

**Taking the Reins**  
  
Regina led her stallion out of the copse of trees where she had been hiding, rested the reins against Volare's withers, and spoke to the blonde approaching on horseback. "You're late."

"I had to convince our son not to follow me." Emma swung from her saddle, landing in the tall grass.

She had become much better at riding over the past month, due to almost daily instruction from Regina. Their routine included Emma riding out to their secret meeting place early in the afternoons, or as soon as Henry left for his lessons with the fairy teachers. Following each secret rendezvous, the blonde princess did her her best to be back at White Castle, pretending to restlessly lounge in her chambers, by the time the child returned from his combat training with James.

But today, Henry had been grooming his horse in the stables when Emma had finally escaped. Snow White had begun a motherly inquisition after lunch, which Emma had barely avoided, leaving her late to meet Regina. She wasn't about to bring that part of the story up, however. Regina and Snow would never be friends.

"You didn't tell him about me, did you?"

Regina's tone and face indicated several conflicting emotions at the mention of Henry, including fear and longing. Contradictory, perhaps, but their situation was complicated. Over the last month, the women had discussed the boy often. At first Regina had met Emma's updates about Henry with pangs of sadness and loss. Soon, however, Emma had noticed Regina's anticipation of news. She had even noticed the woman's tiny, but growing, joy at Emma calling him their son.

As they approached each other now, Emma tugged off her riding gloves and shoved them into the belt of her tunic. She reached for Regina's face, searching her lover's soft brown eyes for any news, anything she should be concerned about. She wished, not for the first time, that the weird cyclone that brought them all here had waited just a little while longer. She and Regina had only just begun to build their trust for one another in Storybrooke, Emma having only recently convinced the mayor that she really wouldn't take Henry away, when POOF! The damned thing hit, transporting them all to the Enchanted Forest, and changing their lives, once again. Emma had been positive before the storm that the former "Evil Queen" had been well on her way to reforming her relationship with their child. Emma wondered fleetingly, not for the first time, if the Universe just wasn't interested in Regina's happiness.

Well, Emma was determined to claim her happiness, damn it! As the White Knight, the Enchanted Forest's savior from the curse, she deserved it. She had lived her childhood, tossed from foster home to foster home, not belonging to anyone, not having anyone whose heart belonged only to her. Even as an adult, she'd had no one, had convinced herself she wanted no one. And most recently, she had given up everything she might have had in a world she knew, only to bring people back to what they'd had in the world they knew. Absolutely insane.

Emma loved Regina. The woman was her True Love, she was certain of it. But it was exhausting to keep their encounters secret, to be unable to shout her love from the rooftops. She wanted Regina in her life permanently. And openly. More than that, she needed Regina. If she couldn't have Storybrooke and the familiarity of a world that didn't have such stark lines between good and evil, she needed Regina, the one person – in either world – Emma felt completely comfortable around.

Kissing Regina, Emma drew the woman tenderly into the crook of her neck, smoothing her fingers through the woman's thick dark brown hair. "Henry has started wondering where I go so often."

"I don't want him to see me like this." Regina shook her head and set her jaw as she pulled away from Emma.

"But isn't that the goal, Regina? For all of us to be together, to be a family?"

Regina turned away, head down, hands twisting her riding gloves between them. Emma watched as the woman's gaze fixed on a faraway point somewhere inside herself where Emma could not follow. She'd started toward Regina when the brunette finally spoke again, her voice small and fragile, wholly unlike the woman Emma had met in Storybrooke. Gone was the defiance and superiority. "I'm afraid."

Emma wrapped her arms around Regina from behind, kissing behind her ear, before turning the woman to face her. She captured the other woman's delectable mouth in hers, tasted the tears streaming down Regina's cheeks. "Afraid of what?"

Emma watched quietly as Regina clearly struggled to put her fears into words. Emma knew from her own experience, though, that the only way they would be able to deal with what was bothering Regina was if the brunette could voice her thoughts. "Face it, Regina. Say it. Let me prove to you it's manageable. Let me share your burden." Rubbing Regina's back encouragingly, Emma waited.

Emma counted forty-seven heartbeats of silence before Regina spoke, barely above a whisper. "I'm afraid that he'll see me." Regina bit her lip. Finally she added, "I'm afraid that he... he will call me mother." Regina swallowed. "But he will never... call me mom."

"You  _are_  his mom. I told you when we first met out here, Regina, he misses you. He doesn't say it, but it is evident in so many other small ways. How he looks out the window at night before bed. The way he looks at every broken mirror."

Emma continued stroking Regina's back. "He focuses on his studies, but sometimes I catch him turning to ask me something. Whatever it is, though, never comes out. He just shakes his head and turns away. I know it's because he is thinking 'mom knows the answer.' But when he turns to face me, he realizes I'm not you. He misses  _you_. He misses the way you were always there for him when he was first learning about the world. A child never outgrows that look over his shoulder for his mother, Regina, for his mom... not when she's always been there. You made him feel secure. That's the real love of a parent, Regina, that security. You've always given it to him, and he knows that. In his heart, he will always know that."

Regina's lips had begun to quiver as Emma spoke. When Emma fell quiet, Regina huddled into her embrace, her body shaking with the force of her sobs.

Emma let the torrent fall, holding Regina close and massaging the nape of her neck. Gradually she felt the heat in the brunette's face cool and the tension in her back release. Her lover had certainly needed this. Emma hugged Regina to her tightly. After a few moments, however, Emma stepped back a little and quipped, "So, can I tie you up, throw you over my saddle, and take you home?" She held out Regina's arms and wrapped the leather reins from her bay around the other woman's wrists.

"Emma..." There was a note of warning in her tone.

Smiling deviously, Emma continued holding Regina's wrists together with one hand and dipped her mouth to the brunette's, only skimming the luscious lips. She unhooked the reins from the bridle and brought Regina's hands between their bodies to tie them more securely. "I could force you."

"Miss – " Regina's frustrated exhale warmed Emma's cheek just before Emma nipped the brunette's pulse point below her left ear. The exhale became a soft sigh of pleasure. "Swan..."

"I always know when I've gotten to you. You use my last name." She parted Regina's riding clothes and pushed the coat off her partner's slender shoulders. "Regina." Emma felt her own arousal growing, felt she needed to speak the brunette's name to keep herself from scrapping this little game and jumping to her favorite part. Focused, she parted the bustier and pushed down the linen, Regina's perfect breasts finally laid bare to her. The blonde unconsciously licked her upper lip before taking the brunette's right breast into her hand, her lips meeting the other. She began sucking the nipple, first lightly, then more deeply, while massaging the other stiffening bud between her fingers, occasionally flicking it gently.

Regina could only respond with a moan.

Letting go of the dark nipple with a moist pop, Emma whispered in Regina's ear, "Do you believe me when I tell you I love you?"

Regina swallowed, a tiny grasp at retrieving self-control. "Yes."

"Do you believe I would ever tell you something that isn't true?"

Regina shook her head and dropped her chin, hiding her eyes from Emma's inquisitive look. Emma lifted Regina's chin with her free hand and recaptured the dark honey gaze. Next Emma skimmed her palm down to cup Regina's left breast, letting them both feel the power behind the rhythmically pounding muscle within. It was several seconds before the blonde spoke again.

"Do you believe I will always keep you safe?"

Regina met Emma's gaze, searching them. Emma could see the struggle in her eyes. "I know you will try."

"Do you believe I will make your dreams come true, if necessary, with my very last breath?"

Emma steadily held Regina's gaze. The brunette's eyes shimmered with tears, her face flushed, her throat tightened. She nodded. Emma smiled at her lovingly as she guided them both to the ground, stroking the gorgeous body before her, persistent to strip her bare.

"Please let me build a life with you... together... with our son."

"Where?" Regina asked. The note of hope was cautious, but it was there.

Emma's smile widened against Regina's hipbone where she was kissing the skin recently revealed by stripping away the brunette's black leather pants. "Inside my mind we're already there. Just come with me. Wasn't it you who said True Love is the most powerful magic of all? It creates happiness."

Regina's lips turned downward until Emma kissed the corners. She knew she wasn't playing fair, that she was bending the truth. It had been Snow who had told her of Regina's words when she confessed her role in the death of Daniel, Regina's first love.

She lifted Regina's hips, adjusting the lithe, muscular legs over her shoulders. Inhaling, she caught the scent of arousal rising from glistening folds. She recaptured Regina's gaze before lowering her head to the feast beneath her lips. Emma held her lover's restrained hands with one of her own, then whispered her final request into the woman's wet heat.

"Let us create our happiness, Regina. Close your eyes. And let yourself dream again."

Emma captured Regina's clit between her lips and stroked at it with the tip of her tongue. That was all it took. The force of Regina's orgasm shook the brunette's body and Emma grabbed her hips to hold her in place. Light erupted around them, accompanied by Regina's gasps and cries as her pleasure overcame her. Emma tingled, her skin suddenly hot though not uncomfortably so. Her hair lifted from the back of her neck; she thought she could feel Regina's light touch there, fingertips caressing.

Regina's femoral pulse slowed in the thighs she had pressed so hard against Emma's head, and slowly her legs fell open, releasing the blonde. Emma had continued licking and nibbling at Regina's clit until she was certain Regina had fully expended herself. Now she lifted her head and looked up, enthralled by the rapid rise and fall of Regina's chest, her swollen lips gasping for air. Before she could find the brown eyes she sought, however, she noticed a fire roared in a hand-hewn stone hearth not three feet beyond Regina's head. The crackling noises of wood drying while being consumed and the scent of apples reached her ears and nose. Instead of chilled earth, they lay on a pure white plush rug. the glade in which they had lain was gone. The glade in which they had lain was gone.

She look over her left shoulder to see a huge bed, four posts holding a canopy high above it, The linens appeared to be an older style, frilly, girlish in complementary hues of greens. "Where are we?"

Regina sat up slowly and made a circuitous study of the space. "It... it can't be."

"What... what did we do, Regina?" Emma asked.

Brown eyes met green. "This is... well, was..." She shook her head before continuing, "Um, this is my bedroom..." she paused. When she continued, Emma heard the overwhelming awe. "My childhood bedroom."

Emma pushed to her feet, looking around intensely. Approaching a vanity table and chair, she noted the chair had a small brush on it. She lifted it, running her thumb pad over the bristles. Several hairs tangled around her fingertips. She had a sinking sense that this was not a past place so much as a present place, and that unnerved her even more than when she discovered she and Regina made magic back in Storybrooke.

The rapid tattoo of booted feet approached the room. Just before Emma grabbed Regina's shoulder and pulled her into the wardrobe in the corner of the room. Just before the darkness enclosed them, Emma registered an expression of utter terror on her lover's face. From between the small space between the doors, Emma spotted the profile of a woman entering the bedroom.

"Regina!"

Emma felt Regina try to press herself into the back of the wardrobe.  _Too bad this thing didn't go to Narnia_ , Emma thought, knowing Regina's instinct to flee her mother and the why behind it since the entire cruel story had come out when they defeated the witch who had come to Storybrooke.

But Cora Mills was dead. Emma sharpened her gaze, trying to figure out the source of the trick - if it was a trick. But before another breath, Cora had cursed under hers, spun on her heel and quit the room, slamming the door shut so hard it continued to rattle in its frame as Emma tugged Regina from the safety of the wardrobe.

It seemed clear now. Emma asked Regina, "When in the hell are we?"

While straightening her clothes - the riding habit Emma had only half removed during their lovemaking - Regina went to the vanity, studying the many little items scattered on its surface. From there, she strode

to her bed, shoving her hand beneath the mattress below the pillow. She withdrew a book, quickly flipping through its pages.

"Well?" Emma prodded when Regina stopped flipping, staring at a particular page, but still said nothing.

"Today is the day I rescued Snow from her runaway horse." She held out the book page. "This is the entry I made the day before, dreaming Daniel would ask me to marry him, and take me away from here. I wrote it the night before... which, it seems, was last night. There aren't any other entries after."

Emma's brows drew together. "And the next day you rescued Snow, an act that ended that dream before it could even begin." Quickly she asked, "So, Snow White is out there right now on a runaway horse. Where were you and Daniel?"

"On a hill overlooking the valley, having a picnic."

"Now?" Regina responded to Emma's question by going to the window and looking out at the sunlit sky.

"Yes, I'd snuck away before tea time. Mother must have been coming to get me for tea just now."

Emma leaned against the frame of the door, opening the door just a crack to peer into the space beyond. Turning to take in the sight from all directions, she finally closed it, settling it without a sound back into its frame. "So what do we do now?"

"This can't be real," Regina protested. "I can't be reliving the worst days of my entire life!"

Emma rapidly closed the distance, taking Regina in her arms. "Sh, whatever's happened, we'll figure it out together. No matter what, remember you are no longer the 18 year old girl under her mother's thumb. We've ended your mother's threat once. We can do it again."

###

_**TBC** _


	4. Twisting the Knickers of History (Taking the Reins Ch 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next part where things start getting kind of messy. Much thanks to ParadoxalPoised for beta services here.

The women's strides were quick and furtive as they snuck from the estate, taking the same path Regina had as a young woman to her hilltop rendez-vous. They constantly looked around them for signs of Cora, still searching for her wayward daughter to drag her to afternoon tea. Without horses the trek out to the hilltop was slower. Regina fretted more the longer they were on the move in the open like this.

"Just focus," Emma said, running alongside her lover, watching the emotions play havoc with her features.

Regina hesitated at the sound of a young girl's screams. She pulled Emma aside just in time to fall aside from Rocinante's thundering hooves pounding the ground at their feet. The brunette on the horse's back did not appear to have seen them, her attention riveted on something in the distance.

Emma rolled onto her stomach, staring after the younger Regina. She witnessed the moment the brunette reached young Snow's horse, grabbing for reins, then child, just before both horses careened into thick forest.

"No!" Regina's gasp beside her made Emma's head turn away from the sight of the flushed and terrified royal child meeting her beautiful savior.

"That was amazing, Regina," Emma said. "Just like the other day."

Regina rolled over, sitting up, plucking grass nearby. "Damn it," she muttered.

"What's wrong?"

"That was our best chance. Now I'll come to the attention of the king. Nothing will change. Nothing." Regina pushed angrily away from the ground, and Emma had to scramble to her feet to follow the brunette storming off away from the estate, away from the hillside, away from her failure.

While Emma had agreed to stop Cora, they hadn't discussed how that might be done. Regina had started running for the hill and Emma had simply followed.

"Regina, stop!" Emma stumbled in a divot in the ground and grabbed for Regina's swinging arms, her off-balance weight bringing both of them down onto the grass. Though she said nothing, Regina resisted Emma's efforts to pull her into a comforting embrace.

"Stop!" Both women froze, eyes wide as they looked up at the sound of the demanding male voice.

Emma was speechless, staring up at the young dark-haired male towering over them. Regina's throat started closing as numerous emotions assaulted her.

"Daniel!" she gasped.

"Regina!" A dark lock of hair falling over his right eye, Daniel bent down and pulled Regina away from Emma. "Are you all right?" He pressed her to him and cradled her head against his throat. "Did Rocinante throw you? What was that scream?"

"Dan...Daniel," Regina gasped his name, assailed and absorbed by his earthy scent, the fresh summer breeze that seemed to live in his hair and the salt-sweet scent of sweat and honest work clinging to his tanned skin. His blue eyes caressed her face, shining with the belief that she was the center of his universe. All the things she loved about him. "Daniel, oh my god, Daniel."

Daniel stiffened at some movement nearby, and Regina turned to see Emma rising to her feet. She stiffened against him, wondering what would happen next.

"You attacked a lady," he scolded.

"I didn't," Emma protested. "We were..." She looked to Regina for guidance.

"You tackled her as a farmer might a pig," he accused.

Regina eased back from Daniel. "It was a misunderstanding," she offered gently, looking up to his face. She couldn't help cupping his chin and cheek, nor the strokes she made over his eyes and across his lips with her fingers. Daniel. Here. Holding her.

It was a taste of heaven she'd never thought to have again.

"Were you also rushing to the aid of the child on the runaway horse?" Daniel asked Emma.

Emma fidgeted. Regina worried her teeth at her bottom lip then accepted the scenario for both of them. "Yes, Daniel, we both were trying to rescue the child."

"So, the child is safe?"

Regina looked at Emma. "Yes," she sighed, "the child is safe." She looked back up at Daniel. "It's getting late. I... I have to meet Mother for tea. You should go to the village."

Daniel kissed her, and Regina sighed into the kiss, her heart and mind briefly captive to the sweet memory of all their kisses. His hands cupped her head, his fingers threading through her hair. His hands hesitated in stroking the back of her neck. "Regina?" he began in confusion.

"Just go, Daniel. Now, before my mother sends someone looking for me."

Daniel scrutinized Emma who crossed her arms over her chest, then he blinked.

"You're a woman." Daniel stepped back. "Did Lady Mills hire you to guard Lady Regina's innocence?"

"She's not a chaperone, Daniel. She's... a friend." Regina winced as she told the lie. "Go. Be safe."

He looked at her in confusion. With a sad, small smile, Regina brushed her lips against Daniel's cheek, and then she dropped his hand reluctantly, not taking her eyes from his as she backed away. Emma didn't move.

Daniel stared at Emma who crossed her arms over her chest, watching them. "Whoever you are, you must see the Lady Regina safely home." He turned his gaze to Regina. "You'll tell me more tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Regina replied dazedly, a heaviness gathering in her heart. She knew tomorrow all too well.

Emma said nothing, only falling into step slightly behind her, as she made her way down the hillside.

* * *

Emma pulled Regina into the shadow of the stable when she spied younger Regina entering a stall with Rocinante. "There you go, boy," the younger version of her lover whispered, her tone cheerful and excited. Emma heard the sounds of tack being removed and then saw the leather items hung on wooden pegs outside the stall.

Young Regina re-entered the stall now carrying a curry comb and brush. "You did so well," the girl cooed to her horse as she worked to groom him. "You were so good, Rocinante. Thanks to you I saved that little girl." Young Regina lost herself in the stroking of the brush over the glistening bay coat. "We saved her," she added proudly. "Mother will be so angry," she said, fingering a tear in her riding jacket. "But I don't care. I was a hero." The young voice held qualities Emma had never heard in Regina's adult voice: pride in self and joyful wonder.

To think Regina's mother would kill that spirit in less than a day from now. Emma frowned. Her mother was safe; the child that would grow up to be her mother was safe from death. But could Regina's path still be saved? Emma pondered these as she sat next to present-Regina hugging herself in the shadows of the barn. They didn't move until the younger Regina had left the barn, patting nervously at her torn riding outfit, eyes flitting as she clearly fretted her mother's judgment on her appearance.

It was Emma who pulled Regina to a window to watch over the younger brunette as she met her mother in a small parlor. The regal elder Mills woman said nothing when Regina walked in, allowing the silence to grow, like an invisible hammer, over the girl's head. Gradually Regina's head dropped under that unseen weight, and Cora Mills decided to speak.

Regina picked at the torn edge of her riding outfit, and nodded her head at whatever her mother was saying. The older woman's face was darkening the longer Regina stood unspeaking. Emma fully, intimately, knew that damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't emotional whirlpool the young woman obviously felt herself trapped in. This, she knew now, was why she understood Regina more than she had understood anyone else in her drifter's life. Wanting, always, to do the right thing, Emma, too, had been frequently backhanded by those who, she thought, would have offered praise.

Cora said something. Young Regina dipped her head, curtsied, and retreated, walking backward from her mother's presence for several steps before turning and hastily quitting the obviously stifling room.

Emma started around toward the window, looking into Regina's room. A firm hand clutching her arm stopped her. She looked over her shoulder to see her Regina shaking her head.

"She..." Regina faltered. "I need you to leave it alone." She sounded beaten. While Emma's anger had been growing, Regina obviously had been sinking into a morass of helplessness.

"Regina, you did nothing wrong."

She grasped Regina's hand and walked around to where they could watch the young Regina clutching her riding outfit to her breasts, studying herself in the full length mirror in her room. Both of them saw the dark eyes reflected in the glass shimmering with tears.

Just in time they ducked out of sight when young woman spun upon seeing their reflections in the shadowed glass behind her.

* * *

"We can't stay here," Regina paced the corner of the stable stall where she and Emma had hidden after almost being spied by her younger self. "I can't watch it all happen again," she breathed. "I won't," she said more firmly.

Emma watched her lover pace around her as she reclined against a hay pile, pulling one of the brittle stalks through her fingers. "All right. C'mere," she reached up and pulled the woman down onto her splayed legs. Regina let out a yelp of surprise.

"Emma!"

"We got here by making love magic, so let's do it again." As she looked into Regina's sad gaze, before she lifted the proud chin to press their lips together, Emma thought whether it worked or not, she might be able to wipe that look of defeat - from both Regina's - out of her own memory.

Regina's lips moved against hers and Emma skimmed her hands from cheek to throat to breast, parting the red and black riding habit with deft fingers. Regina's grateful, luscious moan in response to Emma lowering her mouth to her breast shut out the troubled world around them for a little while.

* * *

Regina awoke to the sensations of Emma's arms around her. Their warm skin almost blended together under the horse blanket Emma had obviously retrieved following their lovemaking before falling asleep herself. Drowsing in pre-dawn light from the open stall door high above their heads, Regina could almost imagine they were in their favorite glade in the Enchanted Forest save for the whickering of nearby horses in their stalls, and the smells reminding her of exactly where and when they were. The idyll was broken completely by the sound of boots crunching the crisp dew-draped ground outside. She realized quickly it must be Daniel arriving for his day of working with the horses.

"Emma," she whispered into the blonde's ear. "Emma, we have to go. Now."

Emma, difficult riser that she was, only murmured in her sleep and wrapped herself more closely around Regina's still reclining figure. "Not now. Just a few more minutes."

"We can't," Regina's whisper became a hiss. "Miss Swan." She'd tried for strident, but Emma's mouth trailing along the tendon of her throat raised her voice in desire at the end of the admonition.

"See.. I told you. I know when I've gotten under your skin -"

"Daniel," Regina hissed.

Emma's brain engaged and she stood quickly, dropping the blanket back on Regina who made an indignant sound albeit muffled. She pulled on her trousers and shirt quickly, dusting her hair free of hay. The noise was minimal but it drew the intelligent young man's attention.

Thinking quickly, she asked herself -  _homeless or hungover?_  Deciding on the former, Emma stumbled out of the stall, shutting it behind her and stumbling into Daniel, turning him as she grappled with him, so he could not see Regina still within the stall.

"Who!? You!" Daniel frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"I... uh, didn't have a place to sleep." Emma walked backward.

"You can't stay here!" Daniel protested. "Lady Mills would never allow it."

"Please don't turn me in," Emma appealed to his kindness. "I'll move on. I promise."

"Did you come here with Regina?" he asked suddenly. "Does she know you stayed here?"

"She, uh..."

Daniel fretted his hands through his hair, "Regina's mother will not like this. Not like this one bit."

"Your Regina doesn't know," Emma interjected truthfully. "She's inside the house."

"Oh, thank god." Daniel took a deep breath. "I want to take her away from here. But it isn't the right time yet. I need a little more -"

"Money isn't what Regina needs, Daniel."

His head snapped up suspiciously at her familiar address. "I mean, you ... you love her. Lots of people marry with only that to offer. And they do just fine."

"But she's... a lady."

Behind Daniel, Emma caught sight of Regina, now dressed though her riding habit was askew. The brunette was slipping silently out of the stall and tiptoeing around the corner out of sight.

"You know she has never cared about status, Daniel."

Regina paused and looked back at Emma. Emma kept her gaze riveted to Daniel's face as his expression slowly transformed to one of contemplation.

Emma closed her eyes briefly, shutting out the brunette and the stablehand before her. Her mind filled with images from the afternoon before. Regina finding comfort and calm in Daniel's arms.

"She loves you," Emma said finally. "She'll go with you, if you ask."

"But I'd need her parents' permission."

"You already know her mother will never say yes. What will make Regina happy, Daniel? That's what you have to do."

Emma turned on her heel and strode out of the barn in the opposite direction. Regina leaned hard on the side of the stable. Daniel, in front of her, and unaware of her presence, stood in silence as well. Neither moved, only watching the blonde woman striding away.

Emma walked away from the stable, heading away from the main house, head down, melancholic. She didn't want to run into Cora Mills. Heavy as her heart was, she didn't want to run into anyone. Daniel was Regina's true love. She knew that now. Cora Mills had ended Regina's happiness once. Emma would restore it to her now.

"What ho, who goes there?" came a deep male voice.

Emma's head jerked up. She stared at a slightly heavyset man in a brocaded jacket and dark breeches. He'd spoken to her. His face was genial, a bit weak-chinned, but there was a smile playing on his lips. This was a man generally happy with his life.

"I'm sorry. Just passing through."

"Passing through? Without a horse?" He searched Emma's face and his brown eyes narrowed perceptibly. "Did you come from town? Do you have business to discuss?"

She turned and it was then he noticed her ponytail.

"Are you one of my daughter's friends?"

Emma nodded easily at that. "A friend." Regina had called her that to Daniel, so it must be true.

"Well, you must come inside and greet her. She doesn't go into town very often, but you must have met her on market day? Or perhaps when the puppet show came through?"

"She and I crossed paths many times," Emma said, again opting for a simple truth.

"Regina's inside breaking her fast." Emma heard deep love in the man's mention of Regina's name. "I know she will want to ride afterward. Perhaps you should just wait here." Now his face took on an edge of concern.

"I shouldn't," Emma said. "Please just... forget I came by."

"You came all this way. Now you do not wish to stay?"

"I am just a friend."

"And I am just her father," he said. Now he held out his hand. "Henry Mills."

Dumbstruck, Emma's hand came up automatically. He held it as a gentleman would hold a lady's hand before kissing it in greeting, but then he paused. "You are not a typical young woman," he said, cocking his head to the side and looking her up and down as if considering the whole of her for the first time.

She wondered what about her hands had clued him in that her attire had not. Emma could not think of anything to say.

"My daughter is also not a typical lady, as her mother, my wife, would have her be, but she is special. I love her very much. Please stay. To see you will undoubtedly make her very happy."

"You flatter me, yet you do not know me," Emma stumbled over her words.

"My daughter does, and I consider her to be a generous judge of character."

Emma needed to get away. Face to face with the younger Regina was certain to be a field of emotional landmines. She tried another tactic. "Why don't you go inside, let her know I'm here. I'll wait."

Henry Mills -  _senior_ , Emma added in her mind - decided that was a proper course of action and strode for the manor house. As soon as he had entered, Emma ran for the forest.

She nearly bowled over Regina coming out of the stable, not looking up where she was going.

Regina caught Emma's arms as they stumbled. "What?"

"We have to go. Now!" Regina found herself half-dragged into the forest where Emma didn't stop until she couldn't see the stables or manor house when she glanced back over her shoulder.

Panting, she finally fell to the ground, leaning against a tree, her head tipping back to rap against the wood. "Dumb, dumb, dumb," she muttered to herself.

Regina crouched beside her. "What did you do?" The stern formal tone was evident.

Emma shook her head. She shut her eyes to hide from Regina's searching of her face.

"Emma Swan."

"I..." Emma paused for a second realizing the impact of what she had done. "I just met your father."

"You met Daddy?" Regina started to look around eagerly. "Where?"

Emma pulled her down so they were together on the grass. "Back at the estate. When I left the stable. He... he thinks, or thought, I am a friend of yours from town. I ran away after sending him into the house. Hopefully he'll forget about it."

"You can make quite the impression, Miss Swan." Regina reminded her. A dark brow lifted and a slight smirk played at the corner of ruby lips.

"I was just a face passing through. We spoke for barely five minutes. I'm sure something else will come along to fill his mind and he'll forget all about me." Emma held Regina. "So, where to next?"

Regina studied Emma's face. The lengthy perusal began to unnerve Emma. She almost jumped when Regina asked, "Why did you say those things about me to Daniel?"

Emma sighed. She had hoped Regina had forgotten her words and quick departure from the stables with the story of her father. "Because what I said is true. He should take you away. Now, before Cora comes with the king. You deserve happiness, Regina."

Doe brown eyes narrowed. "But you almost left me with Daniel in that stable, Emma."

Emma pursed her lips and stiffened. "Yeah, well. I..."

Regina kissed her. "I know watching myself go through this all over again has me on edge," she said. "And if I could change it, I would. But," she paused, kissing Emma again. "I think too many things would change that would lead me to places just as lonely."

"Why?" Emma's eyes shined with tears. Watching her Regina and young Regina suffering through these events had overwhelmed her typical stoicism.

Regina smiled, her eyes alight with tenderness. "Because they wouldn't have you."

###

_**TBC** _


	5. Running Around (Chapter 3 of Taking the Reins)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma runs off to stop the introduction of Regina to King Leopold. Regina runs into... Rumpelstiltskin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These parts just keep getting longer and longer. But the update reaches another climactic turning point. I figured keeping that from you would have been unnecessarily cruel. You'll have to tell me. Feedback is appreciated.

A white carriage with gold trim, surrounded by a retinue of soldiers and a trumpeter seated next to the coachman, hurtled along the forest path. Within its richly upholstered confines a young Snow White sat next to her father, smiling widely at the idea of seeing her savior again.

 

"Oh, Daddy, she was wonderful. Beautiful, strong, dark hair as black as midnight, sun-kissed skin, brown eyes the color of a yearling's, lips red as the ripest apples I've ever seen."

King Leopold stroked his daughter's dark hair absently. "Indeed, she sounds like a true angel of mercy, my daughter. I look forward to meeting her."

* * *

Emma awoke to the sound of nearing hoofbeats. The ground really did vibrate with them. She'd always thought that a silly myth perpetuated by the movies. She studied Regina wrapped up in her arms. The brunette still slept peacefully, lush dark lashes fluttering softly against her ruddy cheeks.

Voices soon reached the glade along with the sounds of wheels and horses drawing closer. Emma pulled gently away from Regina's side. She crept to the tree line to determine how close they were to being discovered. When she peeked beyond it to the road roughly cutting through the forest, her gaze was drawn instantly to the familiar crest on the side of the carriage: White Kingdom!

It had to be the king's carriage, traveling to meet his daughter's savior. He would offer marriage, Cora would accept, and Regina's devastating future would be set on its path.

Emma thought furiously. What if she could just prevent the meeting? Could she sidetrack an entire royal retinue? Talk some sense into her grandfather? Emma cast her eyes over her shoulder at her lover. There would be no taking Regina with her. Daniel had already thought he was talking to this time period's Regina despite the years of difference in age. Snow White wouldn't mistake her either.

She went back to their makeshift bedding and claimed her riding coat, kissing Regina tenderly on the temple. "Love you," she murmured. "Always." Regina smiled in her sleep, just faintly, but that happiness, that peace Emma brought her. That was why she was doing this.

Emma crept down to the brush alongside the road. The royal carriage was just coming onto the woods road that ran down toward the Mills estate. Thinking quickly, Emma looked around. Rocks were too small, and probably would only net her a contingent of soldiers hunting her down.

Finally, she saw no other option and, waving her coat, she ran directly across the path of the horses, startling them into rearing and oversetting the carriage. Emma crashed into the underbrush on the far side of the road. Breaking free of the clinging vines and branches tearing at her skin and hair, Emma's heart hammered in her chest. The sound of it and the blood rushing in her ears almost blotted out the yells and crashing of the White soldiers coming after her.

Her legs churned, and she swept into a glade finally finding room to run. She glanced over her shoulder and nearly screamed at the sight of white and chainmail - a White soldier was breaking through the treeline just steps behind her.

_Oh shit!_  She dodged out of sight to the left, and then slammed into a tree trunk. Dazed she scrambled to steady herself and found her hands closing around a thick vine.  _Up!_  her mind screamed at her.

Hand over hand, using the thick trunk to push against, she climbed the vine and threw herself into the upper boughs. The noise of that was covered somewhat by the noises of the pursuing soldiers. One hand over her mouth and the other over her pounding heart, Emma hid among the tree leaves, looking down at the soldiers convening in the middle of the clearing below her tree, discussing the situation.

"I saw her come this direction," reported one. Emma cursed her long blonde hair. They'd realized quickly she was a woman.

The other two, who had come from the left and right - a pincer tactic David had taught her insisting she needed the ability to lead the army - reported she had not run past them.

They ran off in the only direction no one had covered. Emma waited in the boughs until she could no longer hear the men crashing through the woods. What seemed like hours passed. Her legs started cramping, and the scrapes and cuts from her pell-mell run through the bushes stung with her sweat. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying out. Massaging the muscles as much as she dared, Emma finally ventured back down the tree, landing on the dry leaves covering the forest floor. She held her breath at the sound, eyes darting around for trouble.

She moved quickly and soundlessly back toward the road. The carriage still lay in the road on its side. Emma noted the broken wheel and the cut traces where the horses had been freed. The king and Snow White were on horseback she imagined and, she hoped, no longer paying a visit to the Mills home.

Hurrying further through the woods to the glade she and Regina had shared the night before, Emma nearly crashed into a tree at the incomprehensible sight. The clearing was empty. Regina was gone.

"Regina!" she called out, hoping that the woman is the only one about to hear her voice. She hesitated and listened for the signs of boots crashing through undergrowth. Silence. "Regina!" An edge of panic crept into her voice and she fell to her knees looking at the barren spot where she and her lover had last lain together. She searched the ground for signs of a struggle or clues where Regina might have gone. Finding a single set of boot prints leading out of the glade, Emma followed them.

* * *

Regina heard the commotion of soldiers and awoke abruptly, startled by the noise and the reality of being alone. Emma was nowhere to be seen. In her fright, Regina bolted to her feet and grabbed the pieces of her discarded clothing before stumbling away from the noises to avoid discovery.

The ground became uneven and she lost her footing, tumbling head over heels down the incline. Crushed bushes and branches left gouges in her back, hands, arms, and legs. But when she came to a stop and tested out her joints, she found nothing broken. A look at her surroundings though and she was not far from despair once more. She had no idea where she was. She never recalled being in this part of the land before. A dark cave opening loomed before her, and the hillside loomed above her. Somehow, she knew, she was outside the Enchanted Forest. She tried to remember the maps of the five lands, to guess which she had fallen into, but she knew only that White kingdom marched along the west boundary with the Summerlands, and to the east lay the ocean. The Infinite Forest lay north of White kingdom, but her father's lands had been on the southeast side, nestled between fingers of Stradivare where George ruled, and Midas' domain. Regina decided she had to be in Stradivare.

But the area felt too forbidding to bode any good. Light danced along the inner walls of the cavern ahead. She suspected the orange glow came from ensconced torches. So this was a domain not of beast, but of human.

Arms stinging from scratches, Regina ventured forward slowly and silently. The hewn earth and rock of the cavern smelled of decay. The opening seemed at once both the result of nature, with jagged cuts and turns, and the result of a sort of immature magic, with some surfaces smooth as polished stone or glass. She could even make out a distorted reflection of herself in one shiny black rock face. Obsidian, she thought, accessing the learning she'd undertaken during 28 years in Storybrooke with access to more knowledge than this simple world could conceive.

She missed Storybrooke in that moment. Leaning hard against the nearby cavern wall, she clasped her hand to her throat, physically restraining the sob trying to choke her on its way out. She wanted this over desperately. She wanted Emma. She hated being here, witnessing her past, helpless to do anything. She'd told Emma the truth: to change a moment would change everything. In her exile since returning to the Enchanted Forest, Regina had reconciled her life's choices. If she hadn't gone to Storybrooke, she never would have been able to find and love Henry. Or Emma.

Returning now to this time and place, she'd put her relationship with Daniel to rest. She'd lived a half-life since his death, decaying more and more with every passing year. Until Emma Swan.

Regina looked up and stared at a distorted reflection of herself in obsidian stone. For the first time in a very long time she didn't want to dash the image into shards. She was smiling; she was scraped and unkempt, but she was safe, and loved. Emma had given her that. She watched her smile widen in the reflection. She reached forward.

"I wouldn't do that, dearie."

Regina's smile instantly fell away and her face froze in a mask of implacability. "Hello?" She asked cautiously, not willing to give away that she had recognized the voice. She slowly turned around and scanned the cavern. He stepped from the shadow created by a bend in the tunnel. His skin shimmered gold-green in the light. His eyes gave off their own glow. She held her ground. She hadn't seen him in the Enchanted Forest after the whirlwind upended them all from Storybrooke. And now this was the further past. She wondered about his agenda. He wouldn't cross her path in this time for another few months, after she'd been taken to wed Leopold.

"You're staring, dearie."

"Sorry," she said, though she wasn't.

"What brings you to my humble abode?" he asked.

"Just leaving. Fell down the hill."

"Leave? You just arrived. Do I frighten you?"

"Certainly not!"

"Ah but it is apparent that I do. How interesting that you have such an opinion of me, yet we haven't been introduced."

Regina debated her options. Tell him she knew of him, tell him she distrusted strangers, or reveal herself and judge his reaction. For the time being, she decided, it was better to remain anonymous. If he knew her it wouldn't matter anyway. If he didn't, yet, then she might have another path to pursue for change.

"I was taught to be wary of strangers."

His smile faltered, but then she watched him cock his head to the side. She knew this man well enough after so many years, she realized he was amused. "You're a little old to be taking your mother's advice now... Regina."

"Rumplestiltskin," she replied evenly.

"And you are… Regina, daughter of Cora… yet. Not." He stared at her. Regina said nothing, only wincing at the mention and memory of her mother, so recently encountered. "I'll ask again: what brings you here?"

Regina recognized the question as previously asked, but he always had an agenda when she knew him. So the question was not the question. The answer was important. "This place is your home?" she asked back instead.

"Part of the plan, dearie," he replied easily.

"The plan you have for me?" she asked, and she couldn't help but let the disdain of that slip through. Regina had been appalled to discover how much of her life's path he had been responsible for carving.

"You know what happens, dearie, but not why."

"Then why don't you tell me. Seems we have…" She looked around grandiosely. "Time."

Rumpelstiltskin turned from her and was silent. She followed him. He glanced over his shoulder and flipped the tail of his coat with a flourish before sitting on what she hadn't seen before: an obsidian chair carved, it seemed, directly from the wall, so perfectly it had been invisible to the casual eye.

It galled her, this insouciance of the man, sitting in kingly style, lording it over lives.

She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms, to show her unwillingness to follow any more.

"You have indeed grown, Your Majesty," Rumple said. "But not nearly enough. Things are changing, and I cannot have that."

"Why can't you just leave it alone?"

"I have seen into the future, dearie, and you are it."

"But just this one thing? Why can't there be just this one thing?"

He scowled. "I cannot cast the curse. You must."

"So I must lose  _everything_?" Regina shook her head. "And this is part of it."

"You are here. You are also there," he gestured upward and she knew he was referring to her younger self unwittingly already being manipulated. "That's not part of the plan." He leaned on his cane. "I can just keep you here. You and the blonde woman have been playing with fire."

"Blonde woman?" Regina frowned. He didn't know Emma. Rumple waved his hand toward one of the obsidian walls to show her a scene. The surface swirled and then coalesced into a forest scene, with Emma rather impressively running, jumping, and outmaneuvering a cadre of White soldiers. And then the woman shimmied up a tree. Regina smiled as the soldiers looked around stupidly beneath the very tree not seconds later. A few stared at a ravine, obviously convinced the woman had fallen to her death, and then, waving their unit back together, returned to the White carriage to report the results of their search.

The obsidian view returned to the tree to see Emma dropping to the forest floor. After checking over her shoulder, she ran on, safe from the White soldiers.

"She's someone important. Who is she?" Rumple asked her. "I must have her name to see her place in the story," he demanded.

"Daniela," she said quickly before she could think of something else and give away the only ace she held.

"You lie. But, never fear, I will find out her name."

Regina's spine stiffened. "Not from me."

"Your threads are intertwined, yours and this… Daniela," he added with hesitation, his eyes half-closed and the fingertips of one hand to his temple. Regina had never watched him this closely. Too eager before to learn only what he would teach her, she now had time to consider the man himself, and examine him. "The name is wrong," he added, "but your destinies do remain in step with one another." He opened his eyes and fixed her within a hard stare. "The threads cross into and out of this world. Where did you go between now and now, Regina Mills?"

"You'll find out."

He lifted a hand abruptly and Regina found herself slammed into the ceiling of the cave, the breath exploding from her lungs in surprise. She fought the magical binding, even more restrictive than any her mother had used on her. It was cutting off her breath and she struggled.

"I already know it's a land without magic, dearie. That's necessary." He frowned; the magic constriction loosened around her chest and she was lowered to the floor. "I must have a way to regain myself when we get there, but without magic…"

He seemed to drift away from the immediate moment, lost in a memory, or a plan, Regina decided. She headed for the entrance to the cave, to leave him to his madness.

But he came to himself before she could reach the threshold and she was slammed into the rocky walls but not restrained. Grunting, she stood slowly and looked around. The obsidian didn't reach here and she looked at abraded palms, before looking at him with disdain. "Whatever you've lost, or whatever you hope to find, I hope it manages to stay far away from you," she growled. "You live in fear, even with all your power. I've learned of another way to live, and if I can stop you from destroying all our lives, I swear I will find a way."

"You haven't got it in you, dearie. You love too much."

Regina walked from the cavern into the trickling sunlight and shivered. She feared she understood Rumpelstiltskin too easily. To stop him, she would have to lose everything. Again.

 

###

_**TBC** _


	6. The Stable Boy (chapter 4 of Taking the Reins)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A climactic moment in Regina's history plays out once more, with just a few more players.

 

**The Stable Boy** ( **Taking the Reins part 4)**

Emma fell from the woods onto the furthest edge of the Mills estate. Ahead she could see the royal retinue surrounding Leopold and Snow sharing a horse. They stopped just outside the small outlying building at the end of a manicured drive. Having seen no gardener, Emma suspected Cora Mills' magic had been at work. A young man in White's livery leaped forward from alongside Sir Henry, looking a bit dazed, and Cora, every hair meticulously in place atop her head and flicking subconsciously at her thick black skirt. She looked around then a grin appeared on her face. It was an unpleasant grin, Emma thought, bespeaking calculation and subterfuge. Henry on the other hand looked vaguely ill.

King Leopold handed down Snow to the ground then dismounted, a ringed hand held aloft. Cora stepped into the action, taking the king's hand.

"Your majesty has surprised our humble house," she greeted. She inclined her head, and from the stiffness in the motion, even that action pricked at her spirit.

Leopold only inclined his head in return before taking his hand from Cora's and reaching to take young Snow in hand instead. Emma saw the sneer on Cora's lip before she wiped it away. "My daughter Snow White," he stated, "has told me of a young lady in your house, Lady Mills. I would like to speak with the girl."

Cora's lip curled and revealed her emotions to Emma. The woman felt snubbed by the lack of proper greeting, but she clearly dared not say as much. She said after a moment, "I will fetch her to you." Notably she left off the honorific address.

King Leopold nodded, and Cora withdrew, leaving Henry with the continued task of escorting the king. "Your majesty," Henry said, Bowing deeply and formally. "You grace us with your presence. May I have my stablehand see to your beasts' comfort?"

"Lord Henry," Leopold replied, "you may."

Henry motioned toward the horses with his right hand and Emma saw Daniel step from the shadows. The soldiers all walked alongside Daniel who led them toward the stable. All the young men chatted amiably. Snow and her father entered the manor house.

Emma raced to the window in time to see Cora change Regina's clothes in a billowing cloud of magic only to spin at the announcement of Leopold's entrance.

Hearing nothing, Emma nevertheless saw the bewilderment on young Regina's face as she straightened from a curtsy. She saw the color utterly drain away when the king lowered to one knee and held out a ring in a plush box.

Cora's hands went to Regina's shoulders and shoved her forward.

_Damn it!_  Emma thought. She hadn't stopped the progress of events yet. The front door opened and Emma ran toward the stables without looking back.

* * *

Emma threw herself at the stable door, swinging it inward even as she dropped onto the hay-strewn floor. She looked up at two male shouts into the faces of Daniel and a White soldier. Recognition flared in both gazes.

"What ho! The ruffian from the king's road!"

"Where is Regina?" demanded Daniel.

Two pairs of hands grabbed for her, neither kind, though she decided it was prudent to end up in Daniel's hands rather than the king's man and she kicked out until she was coming to her feet in Daniel's strong grip. She stumbled and he let her go to fall into a stall wall. The horse within the stall kicked back and she fell back onto her hands in alarm as sawdust burst into the air making her cough.

She stood and dusted at her clothing.

"I demand an answer." Daniel accosted her.

The king's driver said, "I should take her to the king."

"I wouldn't," she countered. "I already kicked your ass."

The man was angered by her, but Daniel stepped between them. "We are on Mills land, sir. As such she remains here until my lord decides what to do with her."

"I shall petition for her transfer to our custody then."

Hidden in the straw beneath the munching muzzle of the very horse whose stall she'd disturbed, Emma silently laughed as the two men suddenly looked around to see she had vanished while they argued. A timely breeze pushing at the door of the stables sent both men outside to search.

Emma had no idea of the passage of time, only that the straw began to itch something fierce. But she dared not move. There was a creak of wood and she peeked through the wood slats to see Daniel had returned, this time with a panic-stricken young Regina.

"She's told the king I will marry him, Daniel. We have to go, we have to leave now. I can't stay here. I can't. I won't marry that old man." Emma's expression became as grim as Regina's.

Daniel took her in his arms, comforting her, pressing the tear-stained face to his chest and stroking her hair. Emma saw them freeze, looking toward the door. Snow White, she thought. Regina had told her how the young Snow had seen her with Daniel and run off, making Regina chase her down to extract the secret promise.

However, the voice which erupted simultaneously with the slamming of the stable doors was not Snow's. It was Cora's.

"Leaving? Without even saying goodbye? How utterly pedestrian of you, Regina. Such shameful behavior from my only child." The lights flickered as Cora waved her hand.

"Mother, I -" Regina still clung to Daniel's chest, but had turned to face her mother.

"Don't. I expected to find you indulging your pique in the horses. Not the horse boy, my dear." Regina and Daniel were suddenly separated, arms pinioned by magic to their sides.

Regina pleaded, "Stop with the magic and listen to me. I want to be with Daniel."

Cora scoffed, "You don't know what you want. But I do. I didn't make the sacrifices I did in life, to get you to the cusp of greatness, so that you could end up the wife of a stable boy."

Regina insisted, "But it's my life!"

"You foolish girl," her mother replied haughtily, "It's not yours. It's mine. After what I had to do… The deals I had to make to get us out of poverty, to get us this life, and you just want to toss it away?"

From his imprisoned position, Daniel still supported his love. "Stay strong, Regina."

As Emma watched, Regina looked to him with love in her eyes and smiled shyly. The firm jaw Emma knew from a much older Regina appeared and she pushed outward on her invisible bonds. "Your magic can't keep us apart. I love him."

"And I love her," Daniel stated.

"I love her, too," Cora echoed with saccharine sweetness.

Regina insisted, "If you loved me, you wouldn't try to keep us apart."

Cora put her hands on her hips which had the effect of lowering both Regina and Daniel to the ground. "So, this is… Your decision? This will make you happy?"

Cora released them with a wave of her hand. Regina took a deep breath. Emma tensed, sensing a reversal. Cora's relent seemed too easy. "It already does," Regina said softly, looking to Daniel with a smile that squeezed at Emma's heart.

Emma tensed against the boards. Cora was looking between Daniel and Regina. "Then, who am I to stop you?" she said.

Regina rushed to her mother's arms, embracing her. "Thank you, Mother."

"Young man," Cora said, stepping away from Regina.

"Yes, m'lady?"

"Daniel. If you want to have a life together, a family… Then, there's one important lesson I can impart on you. It's what it means to be a parent. You always have to do what's best for your children."

Cora lifted her hand toward him. He started forward, to gallantly kiss it in thanks. "Thank you. I understand. Because that's what you're doing now."

Emma burst from the stall just as Cora's fingers curved inward.

"Yes. It is." But Daniel wasn't standing where Cora aimed her deadly hand. Emma had already shoved him to the ground. Cora's hand instead invaded Emma's chest. Even though Emma knew the consequence of what she was doing, the pressure in her chest still made her gasp.

Several voices erupted within the same rumble of thunder. Cora howled with outrage and Emma cried out as the fist in her chest tried to wrench out her heart.

"Daniel!" Young Regina stumbled toward her fallen love, tumbling to her knees in the sawdust beside him as he rubbed his chest.

"Emma!" Cora and Emma both turned their heads to see Regina - all grown-up Regina - standing between the stable doors backlit against a lightning-filled sky.

"What is this?" Cora demanded as she returned her attention to her hand within a chest that would not yield that which she wanted to take.

"You losing, bitch!" Emma wrestled with the forearm sticking out of her chest.

"Foolish girl, love is weakness!"

"No," Emma insisted, "love is strength."

As the last word impacted the air, Emma was blinded by a bright light and a shock wave flung her backward. The pressure in her chest was gone when she opened her eyes, collecting her wits against a stall wall.

Regina rushed up to her, grasping her shoulders and searching her face with concern plain in chocolate eyes. Glimpsing past her brunette, Emma spotted young Regina and Daniel still on the stable floor wrapped in one another's arms but staring at them with ashen, uncomprehending faces.

Sinking her nose into the sweet scent of her lover, Emma said, "We better get out of here."

"I agree." The cool calm of the woman tugged Emma's lips into a smile.

She had staggered no more than two steps when suddenly Regina's hand vanished from her own. A blackness engulfed Emma's senses and she felt herself tumbling forward as if off a cliff.

* * *

Emma awakened in a bed, face down and buried in pristine white sheets in a sunbright room. Rolling onto her side, a fuzzy figure gradually came into focus. It was Snow White, her mother. Emma started in alarm and tumbled backward off the bed, to the floor on the far side.

"Good morning, darling," her mother said, throwing back another floor to ceiling curtain. "Happy birthday!"

 


	7. The Path Untravailed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter summary: Emma finds herself back in her parents' castle after preventing Cora from taking Daniel's heart in the Mills stables. However, times have changed - again. This time she's 18, the curse was never cast, and Regina is married to Daniel, the White stablemaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, the consequences of Emma's actions are revealed.
> 
> Author's note: I appreciate every follow, every favorite, and I hope this bit of update can, in some small way, return the love.

**The Path Untravailed** **  
**

 

Emma's head was spinning. She sat in the middle of her bed in White Castle. Her chest hurt, her toes were bare under a sleeping gown far too frilly for it to have been her choice. And her mother was grinning at her like a fool. What had happened to Regina?

But she bit back that first question on her tongue and instead she asked, "What's tonight?"

Snow, her face full of unfettered joy, lifted her skirts and flounced onto the side of Emma's bed. She only vaguely noted, as her mother tugged her hands from Emma's lap to her own, that the fluffy-as-a-cloud duvet was a creamy pink rather than the lavender Emma had favored as a compromise in the face of her mother's insistence that she have the girlish room she had been denied growing up in the foster system.

"Tonight my baby girl becomes the lady she was always meant to be," Snow gushed. A cherubic smile dimpled both cheeks.

"Snow, I thought we already -" Emma cut herself off at the sight of her mother's abruptly shattered expression. The lips as red as the reddest roses had pulled into a frown.

"I thought we had gotten past this," Snow said.

"I'm never going to be all right with a party, Mom," Emma said, moderating her voice to conciliation.

"But it's your birthday. So many people from across all the realms are coming to see the Crown Princess Emma all grown up."

Snow's palms cupped Emma's cheeks, guiding her forward with tender insistence. Emma felt the downward tug and then soft lips brushing against her forehead. "I'll send in Johanna to help you get ready."

Emma harrumphed. Snow's palms cupped her cheeks, guiding her forward with tender insistence. Emma felt the downward tug and then soft lips brushing against her forehead. "I'll send in Johanna to help you get ready."

Before Emma could say another word, Snow was on her feet and moving out the door. While Emma, flummoxed by her mother's behavior, looked around herself without really seeing anything, a blond, heavy set woman in servants' dress, moved into the room and firmly shut the door behind her.

"Shall we start with a bath, Princess Emma?"

Emma blinked and gave a distracted nod. She jumped at the clap of thick hands that preceded the arrival of a semi-constant stream of boys bearing yokes of steaming buckets. Johanna guided them back out when the large sitting basin in the room was full. The humidity in the vast space had risen considerably. "Here, dear. I won't pin up your hair since you likely wish to wash it as well."

Emma stripped and slid into the comforting grasp of the warm water, dousing her head and scrubbing at her hair with Johanna's help. "So, who's getting Henry ready? He got his own, whatchacallit? Butler?"

"Henry, princess?"

"Yeah. Unless he's getting out of this. Though I can't imagine he doesn't want the whole treatment. He did want to come here after all."

Johanna's expression turned puzzled. "Yer right, of course, princess. Now, let me jus' comb it into a braid and I'll leave you to soak."

Emma took the looking glass Johanna handed her and watched the intricate process as the older woman efficiently combed and twisted and used cloth ties to pull her hair into a braid which would, undoubtedly, leave her hair in a profusion of curls for the night's festivities once it was dry and loose.

"Not bad. You've done this before," she commented.

"All your life, princess. It's been my pleasure. Now, I'll leave you to bathe in peace."

Emma watched the older woman let herself out before leaning back spreading her arms across the top of the basin. She glanced down her body, her breasts resting on the water. She frowned as her gaze flowed to her belly. A light hand confirmed that it's not the refraction of the water. There's no stretch marks from Henry. Only the perfect plain of a taut, young, virginal belly. Damn it. She splashed upright.

She needed to find Regina. Now.

Hurriedly she scrubbed her legs and body until she prickled all over with sensation, the liveliness countering the languid feeling of the perfectly heated muscle-relaxing bath.

After stepping from the water, she scrubbed herself dry and pulled on a set of dungarees and a plain linen shirt - apparently she'd hidden them under her bed. She'd never made any bones about her preferred clothing. Then she remembered her belly. Her entire life never happened as it had.

Time to find Regina.

She looked around once in the corridor. The room across, Henry's in another life, was open and it's emptiness hit her. She remembered how Henry had delayed her meetup with Regina the other day by coming out to the stables both before and after his studies. She'd resented him a bit then. God, how she missed him now.

She likely needed a horse to find Regina, so... "Stables it is." Emma hurried through the castle corridors ignoring the askance looks of the many servants, footmen, and soldiers whom she passed.

* * *

The courtyard bustled with a market. Emma slipped a cloak off a merchant's table when he was looking the other way before someone could remark on the princess's presence. She hadn't seen this many people since they first arrived after the whirlwind trip from Storybrooke. Nix that. This was ten times more people. She only recognized a handful of faces, and the dark and cocoa-skinned turban and sheik-garbed sprinkled throughout was proof of her mother's "from all the realms" claim. Wow. She hurried down the path toward the stables, following her nose as usual.

She stumbled into the stable door, skipping her steps to avoid a pile of horse dung.

"My apologies, I was just coming to clean up." A male voice erupted behind Emma, spinning her in place with surprise. As a result she started to fall. Strong hands caught her around the waist and a metal pitchfork bounced off the wooden stable door before clattering to the ground. "I'm sorry I startled you..." Emma's head tossed again, causing her cloak hood to fall from her head. Shock registered in blue eyes. "Princess Emma?"

Emma focused on the man holding her and gasped. "I'm sorry, I didn't see where I was going."

"Are you alright?" He pulled the two of them upright and stepped back. "Did you need a horse?"

"I... I'm not sure. Just getting away from the castle for a while seemed like a good idea. You…" She looked at him closely. He was dark, a little older than she had encountered, but... "You're Daniel, right?" Emma felt the furrow deepening in her brow. This was the dark-haired man who had been Regina's childhood love. Emma had spent a lengthy amount of time in the man's presence, after all, convinced him to take Regina away, and saved his heart from Cora's evil grasp.

"A pleasure to serve the house of White, princess." Daniel acknowledged her identification with a deep bow followed by an even warmer smile.

Emma had a million questions, and not a clue how to ask any of them without sounding like she was out of her mind. If Daniel was here, older, did this mean she had successfully changed history for Regina as well? Had there been a curse at all? How long had she been living with her parents? "I..." She shook herself. "Thanks. You...doing well...your...wife?" She winced. But she was desperate for news of Regina.

Daniel beamed. "We are both well in body, Princess. I will tell her you asked after her."

"She's coming tonight?" Emma asked eagerly.

"She...begs your family's pardon, but fears she would be poor company." That came too quickly; his wife apparently didn't like to go out, at all.

"Please bring her to the festivities," Emma encouraged. "It has been a long time since we have seen one another," she ventured.

He bowed. "I will tell her it is your wish to have her present, Princess."

Emma nodded and started away from the stables.

"Princess, did you not want to ride?"

"It can wait. I just wanted to check on a few things."

He straightened quickly. "I hope you have found all as you wished."

"I hope so, too." Emma left Daniel with his consternation and returned to the castle. Entering the antechamber off from the throne room, she paused, hidden in the shadows, at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Emma was asking about whom?"

"A... Henry?" Johanna hesitated over the name, clearly unfamiliar with it. She went on quickly to Snow, "She seemed to think he was here, getting ready for the party. Is he one of the guests? Someone your daughter is fond of?"

"If he is, I've never met him. The only Henry I know of is Lord Henry, and he… he should be in his dotage."

Emma frowned. Dotage? She recalled that Snow had used that term before to refer to an old, ailing man who had fallen to his knees upon meeting Emma when they first returned to the Enchanted Forest. Emma smacked her forehead. Of course, Regina's father. They all thought she meant Regina's father. Not her son. Regina's son.  _Our_  son. Emma winced.

"The Princess seemed concerned that he should be getting ready? Perhaps she met him somewhere?"

"During one of her many escapades away from here, you mean?" Snow sighed, sounding like that minor mention was testing the last of her patience. Emma peeked around the edge of the wall to see the back of her mother, hand to her head, pacing. The woman stopped moving abruptly, turned back to Johanna, then sighed again. "He's a minor lord of the southern kingdom. I'll send a messenger to ask if he has all that he requires. If nothing else, it's a gesture of goodwill, I suppose."

Emma held herself still and silent watching Johanna follow Snow out on her self-appointed task. She wondered if she should follow and find out about this 'Henry' they thought she had spoken of. Looking out off the balcony Emma scanned the inner and outer baileys and the land beyond the castle's high walls. The land was lusher than she remembered. The greens more green, the trees looking older and more full. Before, she recalled she could see all the way through the sparse foliage to the shores of Lake Nostos. Beyond that lay the land of Regina's exile.

Now though Emma could barely discern the farthest shore of the lake because the land was so thick with impenetrable foliage.

"Emma?"

She turned to see her father entering the room. "David," she sighed in relief. He gave her the same frown Snow had.

"Where did you hear that name?" he asked, his expression becoming more alarmed than frustrated.

It was Emma's turn to frown. "You told me. All about this twin, and how you ha..." David crossed quickly to her, looking around them in clear fear.

His hand came up to her head and the other clamped over her mouth. His expression still seemed more scared than angry which is the only reason Emma didn't immediately flip him onto his back.

"I haven't told anyone that," he hissed low through clenched teeth. "Not even your mother."

Emma blinked as his hands bit into her shoulder and her jaw. Warily she nodded. He let her loose as if his hands were burning. He stared at them clenching and unclenching. "OK," she drew out the sounds hesitantly.

Her father looked around once more, his expression still deeply troubled. "It can't come out, Emma. It can't. Do you understand?"

Emma frowned. "But you always say family.."

"Has no secrets. I know." His head dropped and his chin pressed to his chest. "This is life and death," he said. "Yours and your mother's."

"OK. I won't say anything. Was there something you needed to see me about?"

"Tonight's your first ball. I thought maybe you'd like me to show you how to dance?"

She shook her head, recalling working through the basics with Henry under the instruction of Henry's tutor. "I got that..." She trailed off. No Henry here. "Um…"

"You don't want me to..." He trailed off.

"Da...d," she recovered quickly. "It's not that…"

"It is. It's because of what you learned about me, isn't it?" He sat on the edge of the throne dais, looking up at her with his arms resting across his upraised knees.

Emma sighed and held out her hands. "I learned something about me," she said gently. "You can show me, all right?"

He stood, taking her hand. He still looked worried as she placed her palms in both of his. "Emma, I know this doesn't look good. But I've become a good leader."

They moved around the open space, twirls and steps. For a moment even Emma forgot. "I did learn everything about court life. Born to this life or not, I am so proud to be your father."

"I don't care about that," she stated with emphatic honesty. "I don't want to be a princess, and certainly not queen."

Though he almost certainly spoke about the dancing, Emma heard a note of emphasis as David said, "You're a natural. Just like your mother."

She considered her situation. "Would you tell me again, how you and Mom met?" Something was clearly rotten in the state of Denmark... Well, the Enchanted Forest, she amended. Maybe she could figure out where it had gone awry.

"I was all set to marry Midas's daughter Abigail." Emma nodded; she knew this part. After all, it formed the basis for Regina putting them together to keep David away from Mary Margaret in Storybrooke.

"Snow and her father were among the visiting royals for the festivities." Emma frowned even as David's head fell back looking up at the ceiling in his reminisce, his face upturned in a goofy smile. He laughed, brought his gaze back to her, then went on with his tale. "I fell in love with your mom at first sight."

That wasn't the way the story went, Emma thought. Leopold should have already been dead; Snow on the run from a vengeful queen. "What of Snow's stepmother?"

"Snow only ever had one mother, Eva. Leopold never remarried."

"He didn't?"

David shook his head. "You say that like you've never heard this story before?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, just got confused on the details. All these ball preparations must be messing with my head."

"You want to go for a ride? Clear it a bit? You always liked riding," he said, adding gingerly, "with me."

"I was just out at the stables. Tell me about the...stablemaster? Daniel? How'd he come to work here?"

"Stablemaster? Oh, the...Daniel?" David gave her a puzzled look. "He ..." He frowned. "He's been here as long as I've known your mom."

"He's married, right?"

"Yes, though I don't... recall..." He tipped his head in another direction. "Wait. I have met his wife, but you know? I can't recall her name. She keeps their home, doesn't come to the castle much. Why do you ask?"

"I just wondered if he was happy. If they're happy."

Her father's expression changed to worry. "I knew you'd wake up to the men around you eventually, Emma, but another woman's husband…?" He shook his head. "You'll find someone your own age at the ball. I promise."

He pulled her into his body on the next turn. Emma felt the bigness of his hand settle comfortingly around the back of her head. She laughed weakly, pained by the familiarity. She knew now that this wasn't the timeline she had left. Somehow she had been kicked back into an altered past. In the wake of her choice to intervene for Regina, it might just be her future... She hoped Daniel convinced his wife to attend the ball, so Emma could be sure it was indeed for Good.

"Hey, hey, no crying," her father murmured in her ear as he let her pull back from his embrace. He brushed a thumb at the tear slipping down her left cheek. "You're beautiful, and every man there tonight will press your mother and I for your betrothal."

Emma accepted another kiss to her temple from her father, and watched him stride out of the throne room, no doubt in search of her mother. She hurried to her chambers, a sort of anticipatory anxiety nipping at her heels.

* * *

_Next, the ball..._

 


	8. Wrecking Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma finally sees how her changes affected Regina.

**Wrecking Ball**

 

The orchestra was already playing through simple march tunes and the sound was audible out on the bailey walk and throughout the White castle courtyard. Those not entering the ballroom itself milled around outside. Some tapped their toes to the beat of the music, but generally they were jovially smiling and socializing in their manner. These common folk were gathering for the balcony presentation of their now-grown crown princess eighteen years to the day of her presentation to them as a swaddled newborn.

Emma wished she could cut and run anonymously among them. All more her type of crowd than the lords and ladies her parents had assembled to officially announce her adulthood.. marriageable age. Ugh. Emma shook her head refocusing on the milling people looking for one particular dark head among the masses. As the time passed without seeing Regina, Emma's heart sank as low as the sun.

Daniel entered the outermost walls of the castle dressed in his White livery, a crisp blue shirt with gold colored braid edging running parallel down the sides of his chest, and matching snug-fit trousers.

Taking in the thronging people with worry and fright clouding her brown eyes, Regina held Daniel's big hand and tucked herself along his side. She fretted her teeth at her bottom lip and whispered quickly, "Please, let's go home. We don't belong here. I'll make you a sweet tripe and we'll watch the stars and listen to the wind in the trees before retiring for the night."

"The princess asked for us. It is a  _good_  thing," he insisted. Regina frowned. "You never want to go out. Even to the local square's moonrise gatherings."

"I love our home," Regina replied in earnest. She tucked several dark hairs from her shortened pinned back style. Her fingers brushed briefly at her flat stomach.  _Look it, to live it_ , she recounted the maternal mantra. "I love our quiet, simple life, Daniel."

"Well, it's only going to get better with the princess's notice," Daniel cupped his hand behind her head and pulled her up, pressing his lips to her forehead. Regina closed her eyes and let herself soak in the warmth and comfort of his touch.

Pulling away and squeezing her hand, Daniel turned and led her through the crowd, only stopping when he reached the inner bailey's high arching entrance. Two men, similarly attired to himself, stood at parade rest.

"At the princess's request," Daniel stated. "I present myself and my wife, Regina."

Regina lowered her gaze and folded her hands together in front of her dress' gathered waist, presenting the expected meek demeanor but with pride at her appearance. She had pulled the gray and green muslin from the back of her closet. It had been her wedding dress, and remained her finest clothing, since she preferred the simple styles of everyday wear expected of her husband's working class station in life.

The footman on the right tilted his head to take in the couple. "The princess didn't tell us she had any specific guests," he stated.

"She came to the stables this very afternoon and stated we were to attend."

"I'll check," said the other footman. "You keep them here, Ernest."

"No problem, Bert." With a brusque nod to his partner, Bert hurried into the castle interior, quickly vanishing from sight in the shadows and grandly dressed nobles who dominated the crowd within the main celebration space.

Regina watched Daniel's brow furrow, and felt the anxiety in his fingers interlaced with hers. She squeezed his hand, drawing his gaze. When his eyes met hers, she smiled reassuringly. He cupped her cheek tenderly and kissed her slowly before drawing back. "The princess said she was looking forward to seeing you after so long."

That made Regina worry at her bottom lip with her teeth and frown. Unless the girl liked to go about in disguise - she had heard of royals who did so to gauge the real opinions of the people - she was fairly certain she had never met the White crown princess.

"Don't worry so," Daniel said, brushing his thumb across the back of Regina's hand in his. She quickly quirked her lips, but continued to hold herself silent as they awaited the return of Bert. "She'll love you."

* * *

Emma picked up her dress skirts and rushed from the balcony of her chambers overlooking the inner bailey. Even at this distance she had seen the woman's gleaming white teeth pull at her bottom lip in plain worry as the footman left. She had heard none of the conversation, but clearly there was a problem with admitting the couple to the party. Just behind Regina and Daniel, another couple presented a notecard to the remaining footman and was quickly bowed inside.

She had not given the stablemaster anything to bear truth to his statement that he had been invited to the more regal presentation festivities. If she didn't intercede they would be embarrassingly escorted away. Or simply left to languish; she had seen the departing footman roll his eyes, after all. She had to get down there. Now.

Breathing heavily - damn these heavy crinolines - by the time she reached the bottom of the steps, she called out to the footman ostensibly searching for her. "Hold it!"

He turned to stare at her, his jaw slack and open. She slowed and adjusted her features more neutrally. "I… I was hoping you might tell me if… the… if Daniel and Regina have arrived?"

"Your highness?"

"The Lady Regina and her husband Daniel?" She tried not to sound too anxious.

"I… I didn't…" He shook himself before sketching a bow at her. "They are just now inside the bailey."

"Good."

"This way, Princess." He turned and gestured, then fell into step just off her left shoulder as she took the lead.

Emma soaked up everything about Regina in the hurried walk to greet her and Daniel. The brunette held herself with every bit of manners she'd learned under the strict tutelage of Cora Mills, but there was none of Mayor Mills haughtiness, or the famed Evil Queen's disdain as she practically hugged Daniel's left side. Her emotional turmoil involved all of her face, from the nibble of her lower lip to the pinch of her brow, to the loss of color from her cheeks when she caught sight of the princess Emma. The brown flickered briefly; telegraphing Regina's turbulence. There was little of the woman Emma had fallen in love with, that she had been sure should and could exist, if the weight of being the world's go-to villain, blamed for anything and everything, could be shed from slight shoulders that had pushed with lonely stubbornness against unbearable pain.

Daniel turned at the certain charge in the atmosphere of the crowd, as many noticed the princess' arrival. "Princess Emma," he said with a wide smile before he gave a deep, slow bow, all the way from the waist, reaching out to cup Regina's hand in his own. The brunette beside him dropped her eyes, breaking the bond that had begun to form between brown and green. She wanted to reach out and enfold Regina in her arms.

Without preamble and not wishing to explain herself, nor lengthen the public display which she knew was bothering Regina, Emma pushed bright cheer into her voice. "Hey, Daniel! Good to see you again. So glad you could come. Join me inside?"

She watched Regina's gaze sneak toward her and then turn back to her husband. Emma's hand started toward a bare shoulder, but she stopped herself in midair, realizing it wouldn't be appropriate here.

"C'mon." Ignoring everyone's looks and acting the "expects to be obeyed" royal, Emma turned on her heel and entered the main celebration space. She heard Regina's footfalls and Daniel's boots moving quickly to follow and smiled.

When they were all around the corner, nearing an alcove, Emma turned. "I'm so glad you decided to come."

"We wouldn't have disappointed the White princess," Daniel assured her. "Your parents provide well for my family."

"Well, it isn't my favorite affair, so it's great to have some… fami… friendly faces, ya know?" Emma knew her voice was too bright for speaking to the stablemaster. But she was having a hard time seeing Regina and not speaking directly to her.

"Princess, I'm not certain why we are here," Regina asked. Emma jerked her head toward the woman then, smiling so broadly she was sure the two of them thought her absolutely mad. Regina had a bit of the familiar bite as she tried to determine why her undoubtedly quiet, unnoticed little life was suddenly and unexpectedly deigned worthy of notice.

"Um, Daniel, would you… Regina, could we talk?"

"Princess, I fail to…"

"I know. Just… It'd mean a lot to me."

Regina looked at Daniel, who, Emma could see, was a little disturbed, but clearly determined to please his royal employer in any way he could. When he nodded, Regina dipped her head and turned back to nod similarly to Emma. "Whatever you wish, Princess."

"Call me, Emma. I know. I know it's not proper, but… well… it'll make me feel better. Yeah?"

Regina's brow furrowed at the request. Her lips pursed briefly then both smoothed and she dipped her head once again. "As you wish… Emma."

Emma beamed again, sliding her hand through Regina's arm and pulling her, feigning girlish foolishness to cover her shiver of joy hearing her name from the brunette's lips once again, even if it held only confusion, not the love which she craved.

Once they were near the wall, away from others who could listen, Regina pulled back from Emma. "Princess?" The 'explain yourself' so loudly unspoken in the woman's tone made Emma gush.

"Damn, it is so good to see you. You look great."

"Princess, I'm quite certain we have never met. Certainly not in a manner that you would recall."

"I …" Emma trailed off. What the hell could she say that didn't make her sound like a stalker? "I...know how you saved my mother's life, and wanted to thank you."

Regina looked puzzled at that. "It was a very long time ago. It is easily forgotten."

"I couldn't exist without you," Emma said softly. "I'm glad to see Daniel makes you happy."

"I…" Regina looked down at Emma's hand on her wrist. "He… I… We appreciate the opportunities your family has provided him, Princess."

Emma frowned a little. She had expected effusion when she mentioned Daniel's name. "Daniel said earlier you aren't feeling well. If that's true, I'm sorry to have insisted."

Regina quickly shook her head. "No. No. It… You are a young and beautiful woman at the start of your life. Mine has … is… Daniel and I have found our happiness in one another."

"So you are happy?" Emma asked. "I want you to be happy."

Regina pulled her hand from Emma's and her brow lowered as her expression darkened. "You know nothing about me or mine. Simply come out with your demands of me."

"Regina, no. Please. I screwed up. Something happened, and I need to fix it. But… you  _have_ to be happy. Please." Emma grasped Regina's hands, cupping them together in her own. "Please, I need…"

"You have everything you need, right here, Princess. What could you want to play with a horseman and his wife?"

"Tell me about your children." Emma asked suddenly. Regina froze, and the anger she had been known for in another world, another time, seemed to slam down over her countenance like a knight's helmet.

"I must return to my husband." Every word was bitten out with care that the tone never suggested she was slighting royalty, but the insistence was there nevertheless.

Emma winced. However, she silently followed Regina back to Daniel, smiling through her pain as she watched him pull Regina into his arms and nuzzle her before lifting his head and smiling back at Emma. "Thank you for the moment with your wife, Daniel. You two enjoy the party," Emma said. "Though perhaps… a dance or two later?"

"Of course, Princess," Daniel replied quickly, bowing again. Emma smiled at him, noting the way his eyes left her to adoringly settle once again on his wife. Emma noted, however, the affront still perched in Regina's brown eyes.

"From both of you," Emma added. Regina's lips pursed, but when Daniel's expression shifted to surprise, Regina dipped her head in acknowledgement of the royal request.

* * *

"There you are, Princess!" Johanna threw up her hands to emphasize her exasperation, as if it wasn't plain in even her hissed voice. "Where have you been?"

Emma's foot set down on the second floor landing as she left the staircase and dropped her hold on her dress skirt. "Sorry, I had to see someone."

"Someone you've been sneaking out to see, no doubt," the older woman said. She managed to sound both disappointed - Emma was sure she'd heard a quick click of the woman's tongue - and bemused, like Emma was the cutest damn little fluffball of an animal ever.

"Well, you can announce him soon enough. But right now, I've got to get you to the formal entrance for the Great Hall." She fussed with the bits of Emma's hair that had fallen free from her coiffure; Emma heard that damned tongue-clicking again. "You are such a hoyden. Time to grow up, m'dear," she added as she tucked a lock back around an ear. "You're beautiful, and some noble young man is going to find you irresistible."

"Johanna, what happens if I don't find him… irresistible?"

"Don't fret. It'll happen, same as it did with your mother. Prince James is her true love. You will find yours. Simply everyone who is anyone in this land is here."

"What if it isn't a…" Emma trailed off. Did she dare find out the prevailing attitudes? "A noble."

"You mean someone of more common birth?"

"Yeah, let's go with that. For now," Emma added under her breath.

"If he is your true love, I can't think that your parents would deny you."

"Yeah." Emma's shoulders squared and she picked up her dress skirt again. "Okay, let's get this show on the road."

_###_

_Next, Snow and James introduce marriageable Emma to their people._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real life really gets in the way. I'll try to add more quickly, but there's only a month left until school starts. 
> 
> My beta thanks to ParadoxalPoised on this part. Kiss. Kiss. Love you!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snow and James introduce their daughter to the people of The Enchanted Forest. Emma tries to determine how happy Regina is.

 

Johanna tipped her head to the guards at the ballroom door and patted Emma’s shoulder. “You have a lovely time, dearling. It’s your night to be celebrated.”

“But I --”

“Go on,” Johanna insisted with a push between Emma’s shoulders.

The guards each opened one door outward, or rather inward to reveal the ballroom beyond. Emma stared out at the sea of people. She entered after taking a deep breath only to have another man rush in front of her, raising a ridiculously long trumpet to his face. He ignored a bright purple feather that fell from his hat across his nose.

Already surprised, Emma jumped again at the blast of sound that drew everyone’s attention. Pressing her hand to her chest to still her racing heart, she listened as she was announced:

“Lords, ladies, invited guests of Her Majesty Queen Snow White and Prince Charming, Her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess Emma!”

Emma inhaled and then strode forward as the crier’s echoes died away. Despite the packed room beyond and all eyes on her, she still felt her ears ringing from the introduction. She shook her head, lifted her skirts, and hurried forward. The hem of her dress tangled dangerously with the heel of her shoe and she felt the fabric tugged from her hands. Heart racing, she righted herself before she actually could faceplant.

“Emma.” Hearing Snow’s voice Emma snapped her head up toward the dais to see her parents standing.

“I’m okay,” she mumbled.

“Good.”

It was only then that Emma realized Snow had a hand on her father’s forearm, restraining him  as discreetly as possible from rushing to Emma’s side. A few steps to her left, amidst a crowd of citizens, she spotted a familiar face and smiled tightly to him and the beautifully, painfully familiar woman beside him. Regina looked so gorgeous in the simple gray and green muslin gown it hurt Emma’s heart.

Recovering her footing, Emma lifted her head, pulled her shoulders back, and completed the short distance. She glanced over her shoulder, catching the brown eyes once again briefly, seeing shy surprise in them. Reluctantly tearing away, Emma dipped her head and bent forward over her extended foot toward her parents, in a perfect curtsey.

Snow reached for her as her head came up once more. Emma reached forward with her own hands enclosed in satin gloves past the elbows. Snow embraced her, kissing first one cheek and then the other before stepping aside. David then wrapped Emma in his arms, cupping behind her head with his big hand and holding her snugly. in her ear he whispered, “do not worry. You are so beautiful,” before stepping back as well.

Snow gave a quirky little twist of her fingers, so Emma took the cue and turned around to face those assembled as raucous applause reverberated off the stone walls.

As the noise fell away, Snow stepped forward, cupping Emma’s upper arm in her white satin gloved hands, sending a shiver down Emma’s spine.

“It is a most wonderful day on our personal journey as a family,” Snow began. “Our daughter, the beautiful Emma, for whom all the kingdom’s swans took wing upon her birth, is now a woman grown. It is a glorious day for the future prosperity and peace of our eternal kingdom that we now recognize her to be of marriageable age.”

Emma noticed a clutch of young men jostling to stand before her, each eagerly hoping to catch her eye. Her suitors, she presumed. She scanned away from them to see the serious faces of thicker, older men just behind. Obviously the powerful fathers, any one of whom would appreciate Emma choosing his son to unite with White.

“An alliance shall be ventured tonight, upon our sweet Emma’s word. Until then, please, be merry, dance, drink, mingle, and celebrate with us.”

Emma’s fingers flexed in her father’s palm as Snow looked significantly at her. Stalling mostly, Emma turned to David. “Um. Dad?” she asked quietly. “Would you…?” She trailed off, then glanced at the expansive room.

Her father beamed at her and tucked his hand lightly along her waist, leading her out on the main floor. The nobles took steps back to give them room.

Snow lifted her hand and the orchestra started playing once more. David held Emma’s hands and she followed him to the tune’s beat, waltzing around the room.

She studied faces staring at her as they circled. She recognized the Blue Fairy, tiny and fluttering over Snow’s shoulder, even Grumpy and Sneezy, who had Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder, Even Granny and Red were here, but Emma found no sign of Regina or Daniel.

 _Damn_ , she thought, she must have scared the brunette away. She had to fix this. David noticed the change in her steps.

“You seem a little tense,” he said.

“I discovered some bigger problems,” Emma answered.

“Anything I can help with?” He turned her in a wide swath that took them to the edge of the ballroom, near the balcony arches.

Emma’s whirling gaze found Regina standing aside and holding Daniel’s arm, talking to him in hushed tones. She couldn’t see Regina’s face clearly, with the woman’s back to her, but Daniel’s expression was easily read. His mouth drew down in a frown, followed by his brows, and then he cupped Regina’s face.

Making a split-second decision, Emma told her father, “Yeah, go dance with Mom. I see my next partner.” She spun away from David who strode to take Snow’s hand and escort her off the dais. Emma heard the music shift as her parents took the dance floor, just as she arrived in front of Daniel and Regina.

Daniel bowed. Regina turned and her eyes widened in alarm upon seeing Emma. Quickly recalling her manners, however, Regina dropped her head and executed a curtsey before the princess.

“Princess Emma,” Daniel address her for both of them, as was the custom.

Emma suddenly realized she could not do what she truly wanted to do. The scandal would be insurmountable if she pulled Regina away from Daniel while all eyes were upon them. She had to think of something else.  “Master of Horses,” she addressed him formally. “Would you do me the honor of a dance?”

Regina’s face paled. Daniel even looked taken aback. “Princess?” they said together.

She smiled at the matching gasps, pleased that in this it seemed Regina and her Daniel were of the same mind. Oh what the hell, it was all unorthodox anyway. “Both of you.”

She took Regina’s left hand and Daniel’s right, drawing them both out from the shadows with her. There were more gasps, but the musicians did not cease in their playing. Emma turned, her movements insistently guiding the three of them in a dancing circle. Daniel picked up the style with a smile and reached behind Regina’s back to hold his wife’s hip. Emma’s arm crossed Regina’s back along his own, and Regina was tucked up against Emma’s shoulder on the other side.

“Hi,” Emma said, whispering in Regina’s ear. She looked away from Regina’s surprise and up at Daniel. “Seeing you makes me happy.”

“The princess is too kind,” Regina said, still sounding disconcerted.

“But I want to get to know you,” Emma replied. “Will you join me tomorrow for a picnic in the woods?”

“The princess surely has others she would rather--”

“Nope,” Emma interrupted cheekily, watching as the emotions roiled in Regina’s features. The brunette was clearly caught between fear and anger, and didn’t know how she could tell off the royal heiress without repercussions. It was underhanded of Emma to put her on the spot like that, and she knew it.

When neither Regina nor Daniel responded, Emma kissed a cheek on each of them. “There, now you have to come. Noon tomorrow, I’ll meet you at the stables.”

“Princess--”

“No, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Emma slipped away from Daniel and Regina, guiding the latter into her husband’s arms with a smile. Daniel stopped dancing as Regina lowered her face to his shoulder.

###

Two hours later having danced with several of the less offensive looking suitors, Emma sat in a chair near the edge of the floor near an archway catching the breeze from outside and resting her feet. A young boy walked up to her. Upon close inspection she realized he was not a boy, but a puppet, the wood grain almost porcelain smooth, but definitely the unmistakable paleness of oak. “Aug-” she stopped herself before fully using the Storybrooke curse name. “Pinocchio?” she adjusted quickly, “what’s on your mind?”

“I… Could I have the next dance, Princess?”

“I’m a little tired at the moment.”

“I might not be able to tell a lie,” he said, “but I can tell when someone else is lying.”

Bemused, Emma leaned forward on her seat and studied the redheaded wooden boy with the green hat and child’s coveralls, still marveling that this was little August in this world. “Is that so?”

“Yes, Princess.”

“And you think I’m lying when I say I’ve been dancing for two hours and I don’t want to dance again.”

“No, when you said you were tired. You’re not. You’re distracted.”

“Distracted? By what?”

“I’m not sure yet, but your eyes don’t stop roaming the dance floor.”

Emma nodded; she was keeping an eye out to make sure that Regina and Daniel didn’t leave, or at least that her unusual invitation hadn’t upset Regina unduly. The horsemaster seemed to have brightened his wife’s spirits a little, but there was still an unexplainable melancholy when Regina looked at others dancing around them. Once the royal family had started dancing others joined in, from nobles to commoners, and many youngsters not old enough to be courting, but enjoying the atmosphere, were dancing rosie-style, in little rings of joined hands around the room.

Puzzling over Regina’s likely life path since the changed events in the stables. Emma realized it had to have been at least 25 years. Regina had obviously married Daniel. The brunette should be ecstatic, freed of her mother’s and Rumpelstiltskin’s influences, and having raised children with her true love.

Emma glanced back down at Pinocchio trying to decide what to say, when the sound of children’s laughter rang out above the music. There was a series of thunks and the music stopped abruptly.

Emma’s gaze shot toward the location of the disturbance. The crowd of dancers and children were parting. Regina and Daniel clutched one another in the midst of it, and a small child lay crumpled on the floor, having clearly fallen back after bumping into the hip Regina clutched with one hand. Regina’s eyes went wide, staring down at the little dark-haired girl, then welled with tears. The woman stuffed her fist in her mouth and Daniel couldn’t keep up as the brunette rushed from the castle in a flurry of fabric.

“What happened?”

Emma listened as whispered hummed in the air following Regina’s departure. A noblewoman lifted the little girl and dusted off her dress before nudging her to “move along.” Someone nearby whispered, “Poor woman,” and Emma knew they were whispering about Regina.

“That’s the childless woman,” Pinocchio said.

“The what?”

“The horsemaster’s wife is barren,” he explained. “You said you knew them.”

“It slipped my mind.” Barren, Emma thought, _oh god, that’s awful_.

“You’re lying again,” Pinocchio said.

“Go away,” Emma groused, turning her back and striding toward her parents with the intention of calling an early end to her evening. Pinocchio stared after her but did not follow.

Emma staggered away from the moment; thunderstruck by the realization. _Regina would never have children_. Tears pulled at her face. _This won’t do_ , Emma thought. The change to the timeline was supposed to give Regina her happy ending. She had Daniel, yes, but the sadness Emma saw in those brown eyes was not going to go away because Regina’s happy ending needed being _a mother to a child. A mother to Henry_.

Stumbling into a chair, Emma gripped it, staring at the wainscoting almost dumbly. “We can’t stay. I have to get us home,” she muttered, eyes darting around.

She found Snow and David sitting with The Blue Fairy hovering between them. The three were having some sort of conversation. However, silence fell the moment Emma stepped near.

“Emma?” Snow asked, quickly tangling her fingers in her lap. “What is it, dear?”

“I’m gonna turn in.” Snow’s brow furrowed. Emma shook her head. “Just tired.”

“Oh. very well.”

David asked, “Would you like me to escort you to your chambers?”

“No, thank you.. I have a busy day tomorrow. A picnic.”

“Are you certain you should?” David asked. From the look in his eyes, Emma knew he was remembering his belief that she was after the horsemaster and planning to separate the husband and wife.

“It’s just lunch.”

“All right,” he replied, but his tone was cautious.

Emma bent to kiss Snow’s cheek, accepting a kiss on her own cheek in return. “Good night.”

###

It was nearly noon when Emma headed for the stables. She had dressed functionally in leather breeches with a thick green buttonless vest and a wide leather belt over a flowing white cotton top. It was autumn here. Winter would be coming on soon. She had Johanna’s help braiding her hair and circled the golden mass of it around the top of her head. A picnic basket of items gathered from the kitchen swung from her right arm.

When she entered the stables she found Gordon, the assistant stablemaster, the only one about, mucking a stall. “Where is Horsemaster Daniel?” she asked.

“The Prince arrived early this morn informing the Master he was needed to inspect the horseflesh of a visiting Sultan who wished to gift our stables on the occasion of your betrothal, Your Highness.”

Emma sighed, but then brightened. “Would you tell me which direction lies the man’s homestead? I shall bring these foodstuffs to his wife.”

Gordon pointed to the road leading south of the castle grounds. “The homestead is just outside town in the Southern Forest.”

“Thanks. Could you saddle up something?”

“Your mare can be readied, Your Highness.”

“Then do so. Thank you.”

Within a quarter hour, Emma was aboard Buttercup (to which she had rolled her eyes) being handed up her picnic basket. “Tell my father thank you when you see him, Gordon.”

“I… Well, yes, Your Highness.”

She waved and geed the horse quickly to a canter, eyes on the road, and mind on her destination.

###

 


	10. Why me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disturbing her household chores, Regina receives an unexpected visit from the White Princess Emma.

**Author's Note:**  To all SWEN, your continued support of my writing makes me grateful. Thank you to paradoxalpoised for looking this over and telling me it's good to go.

**Chapter summary:**  Daniel's wife Regina receives an unexpected visit from the White princess Emma.

.

**Chapter 8**

As the sun approached the apex of the sky, Regina wiped the sweat from her brow with the loose cloth she kept around her neck for that purpose. She straightened from scattering millet for the chicken and ducks, rubbing at the strain in her lower back. Mentally she ticked off this chore from her daily list.

She would have to wrap a hard cross bun and some salted pork strips before taking the waterskin to the section of fields allotted to her family for herbs and vegetables that were not already grown in the community gardens with the corn and wheat and fruit orchards. She maintained her apple tree with care separately, but also grew herbs around its base and needed to gather rosemary for the planned mutton stew with the season's newly harvested potatoes, carrots and leeks. The slaughtered communal bull had not yet been divvied up among the families. In any case, Daniel and Regina, as a childless couple, would receive the fattiest, last portions of the animal. The better parts of the animal were reserved for the larger, wealthier families in town.

The mutton chunks were the last of their stored meats from the last communal slaughter. They would be switching to chicken next, she realized, eyeing the fowl clucking and pecking around her feet. Already usurped by the youngling preening by the henhouse, the senior rooster pecked with leisure by her left foot.

"Looks like we all become useful again, even when we think our time has passed," she told him. She sighed, taking her hands from her hips to reach out and wring the thing's neck.

"Hey! At the homestead!"

Regina jerked up so fast the rooster startled and darted away, scattering nearby chickens into raucous flight, several flying at her face. She rebounded from that only to lose her balance and tumble into the dirt.

"Regina!"

Looking up, she attempted to right herself and her clothing - and discreetly rub the seat of her pride bruised in the fall. She found a tear as she was fixing the lie of her dress and sighed.

The figure rushing toward her was a blur of blonde and breeches. But she had heard enough. "Oh, no, no," she muttered.

It was the bloody White princess.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

The princess, a braid down the middle of her back signifying her unmarred, unmarried and enviously innocent state, tossed her saddlebags to the ground near Regina's feet, stirring up the chickens yet again. Regina bit her lip to contain her frustration. The woman was grinning rather stupidly proud of herself apparently. "I'm bringing you lunch!" the girl proclaimed.

Regina's mouth watered at the idea of the castle's likely richer fare, but she stubbornly swallowed. "I have to get to the field," she declined.

"Not today. Today you're with me. I know Daniel went off with Dad."

"To look at horses meant for  _your_  wedding gift, Princess," Regina informed her, barely restraining the emotion that the girl was particularly dense.

"And if I want to forget about all of that, it's my right, isn't it?"

Regina felt chastised even though Princess Emma continued to smile at her beatifically. She was beginning to feel that the girl was either slow-witted, or… well, slow-witted. She dropped her head and put her hands behind her skirts. "You may do as you wish, princess," she acquiesced.

"Aw, c'mon. You're just giving in? I figured you would lambast me for sitting on my privilege like that."

"You're trying to draw me into an argument?" Regina amended her earlier thought. The girl  _was_  clearly insane.

"I'm trying to connect with you." Emma's green gaze bore into hers.

Regina felt a lump form in her throat. In reaction to an emotion she couldn't even define she felt on the verge of tears. Defensive in her vulnerability, she lashed out, "Leave me alone!"

"Why aren't you happy?"

"I'm fine. It is you who are clearly unhinged," Regina retorted, but the earnestness in the princess' features was beginning to eat at her resolve to remain calm.

"I need to know." The princess stepped forward. Regina took a quick step back. Unfortunately a chicken did not move fast enough and she tripped over the feathered squawking fowl, falling back toward the ground.

Suddenly, the princess had grabbed her. The girl had not merely snatched for her hand, but Regina found herself wrapped up in surprisingly strong arms. Now she was being lifted from the ground and carried by quick, smooth strides toward the fence.

Regina gasped, at the sensation of leaving the ground, at the sensation of the princess's muscular arms against her back and under her legs, and at the thrumming heart that beat under the vest when she reached forward to stabilize herself. Her fingers drifted against a golden braid as they encircled the girl's throat. "Emma!"

"There!" The princess practically crowed at the use of her given name as Regina's rump hit the fence board. "I knew I could get to you somehow!"

Regina realized she hadn't released her hands from around Emma's neck and quickly did so. "Why are you so intent upon me?"

"I've told you. I want you happy. I want you to have your happy ending, Regina. You need it. It has to happen."

"I have my happy ending," she said, but even she heard the words emerge weakly. She loved Daniel, dearly. They had been able to make a life together.

"Then why does it just sound like an 'ending' when you say it?" Princess Emma dropped with a thump to her knees on the yard's hard packed dirt, grasping Regina's hands fisted on her skirts. "Please talk to me."

Her sight of the princess became blurred. Regina pulled her hands free and dislodged herself from the fencing. "You wouldn't understand."

"So there is something."

"You're young, and you have your whole life ahead of you. Why are you concerned about anything else?"

Emma seemed stymied by the question. She turned away briefly; it was absurd to want the girl to talk to her, but Regina found herself waiting, wanting exactly that. Emma finally turned around. "I won't be marrying," Emma said. "The person I want is… not available."

Regina frowned. "That must come as a shock to your parents. You have a responsibility."

"I have another job to do," Emma said.

"What could be more important than providing an heir for the kingdom?"

"Finding my true love. Like my parents did. Like you did." Emma lifted the saddle bags and withdrew a cloth-wrapped bundle. "Burrito?"

Taking it in her hands, Regina unfolded the cloth to reveal a thin bread wrapped around meat and cheese. "What is this?"

"Something I know you'll like."

Querulously Regina looked back up at Emma's features then down again to the strange meal. "You seem very sure of that."

"Well, I'm not the cook you are, but you liked my tacos. I couldn't make those, so…flat bread is the closest I could..." She trailed off and shrugged.

Regina puzzled through the strange statement that made her feel like she was missing memories, which was absurd. Though the princess seemed so sure. "Enclosed like this would make a good food for when one is riding."

That appeared to be an acceptable thought, since Emma smiled. So Regina lifted the end to her mouth and took a small bite. The flavors of meat and cheese and bread mixed in her mouth curiously. And peppers, she realized, tasting the mild heat and crunch. Chewing and swallowing politely, she nodded her head. "It is good."

Emma beamed. "So...can I stay?"

"Not for long," Regina warned. "I do have to get to the field."

But Emma shrugged and smiled as Regina took another bite of the burrito.

###

Regina had led Emma to the cottage where they sat at Regina's tiny kitchen table. Emma ate one burrito, but let Regina have the remaining two. She shared a flask of royal wine, watching this Regina in her element, looking around at the modest home. It was well-kept, spotlessly swept and simply furnished, with two chairs at the table, a bench along the wall near the door. The fireplace served as both kitchen hearth and central gathering space. Two large rockers also faced the fire from the other side. A basket of sewing materials sat on the floor next to the one nearest the window.

A space had been cordoned off with curtains, though they stood open now, revealing the bed within. Emma looked quickly away from the evidence of Regina's married state.

"Is something wrong?"

Emma saw that Regina had finished the burritos and now sat back, sipping on a mug of the wine Emma had brought. "I...you have a lovely home."

"Thank you."

"Did you…How long has Daniel worked for the castle?"

"Shortly after Snow ascended to the throne, there was a war with King George. The prince's horse threw a shoe during a battle near our home. Daniel helped the horse, and the prince was impressed. He offered the role of stablemaster before the troops moved on to face King George's forces. Daniel went with them and the war was quickly won thereafter."

"Were you very afraid to have Daniel gone so soon? And to war no less?" Emma

"We had been married for several years," Regina said. She added nothing else. Emma worried at her bottom lip, trying to think of more to ask, to keep Regina talking, to learn more about this alternate reality to which she had apparently sent them with her magic. Or their magic. Or something. She glanced at Regina's hands wrapped around her mug. The simple tack ring glinted dully against the woman's olive skin, bronzed by the sun and weathered… Emma recalled the softness of Regina's hands, noble's hands, and the satin feel of their caress against her. She dropped her eyes and fidgeted with her fingers around her own mug.

"So, um, Daniel is friends with Da...my father? What of you and Snow?"

Emma didn't miss the fact that Regina stiffened briefly, but then the shoulders sagged. She shrugged, then answered Emma. "Your mother and I met briefly when she was a child, and of course all the kingdom witnessed her coronation."

Nodding, Emma remained silent. Maybe it was for the best that Snow and Regina knew so little of one another in this timeline. Her mother's effusiveness about having her true love, while Regina's apparently had not worked out as well was unlikely to be the best foundation for building a friendship.

She downed the last dregs of her wine.

"It seems your picnic has ended, princess." Regina stood, gathering the mugs they had used to drink and clearing the few crumbs from their food.

Emma stood quickly and followed Regina. "I'd like to go with you."

"Go where?"

"To the fields."

Regina looked at her over the basin she was filling with hot water from the fireplace. "The fields are hard work, princess."

"I'm not afraid of hard work."

"You aren't accustomed to it either."

"Try me," Emma challenged. "Besides," she thought quickly, "someone should look out for you when Daniel's not here." She wondered again at how Regina had fared when Daniel went off to war with the kingdom. Even if he had only been managing the horses, Regina had to have worried he might not come back at all.

Regina finished her cleaning chore and placed the mugs atop the hearth to dry. She reached for her cloak and a small wooden basket. Emma was on her heel as she reached the door. "All right, you may accompany me."

###

Regina fretted with the hood of her cloak, hoping that the princess wouldn't notice she just couldn't stop glancing toward her. It was just to check she hadn't stumbled, Regina kept telling herself. It wouldn't do for the princess to get injured out on the town road with no one to blame. So they might just blame Regina, and then where would she and Daniel be?

Her mother had done that all the time. Blamed others for things that happened to her. Regina was determined, after escaping her mother's influence, to be nothing like the woman who bore her. Not even the least bit. She frowned. She hadn't thought about her mother since leaving the estate. She wondered why the memory would come upon her now. She glanced at Emma again, only to be caught by green eyes and then a quirked smile that had the power to pull at her own lips.

"It isn't much farther," Regina said into the silence between them.

The princess started to open her mouth and then the seemingly inevitable happened. She tripped. Regina had no idea what had caused the trip, but she was on the ground next to the princess even as the woman was pushing back to her feet. "Princess, are you all right?"

She grasped the woman's forearm and inhaled to catch her own breath, feeling what had to be anxiety and panic jolt through her chest.

The princess's head jerked up and their gazes intersected once again. Pretty pale lips parted and spoke. "I…I'm okay."

Regina tried to move back and return to her feet, but a warm hand slid over hers on Emma's forearm and squeezed. "Prin-?"

"Could you call me Emma? I feel…well, I feel like I don't want the barrier of titles between us."

"But you're the princess."

"Can't I have friends? You were born a lady, right? Can't you just...I don't know, just...it's two syllables. But it would...mean...a lot," the girl finished.

She looked so forlorn as she let go of Regina's hand that Regina reached out and grasped the girl's hand again. Another thick, warm feeling slid through her, from her hand up through the middle of her chest. "I..." She breathed in, then exhaled. Then she added, "All right. Emma."

"Thank you." Emma stood and started dusting off her breeches, then reached out for Regina's hand. In the spirit of their new friendship, Regina told herself. That's the only reason she accepted the woman's aid to stand. "How much farther to these fields of yours?"

"It's not far." Regina didn't really speak after that, leading the remaining distance in silence. Once at the field she bent to her gathering task, placing herbs and vegetables in her basket. The princess -  _Emma,_  Regina corrected in her mind - picked what she did. At first that meant Regina had twice as much as she needed in her basket, but then she simply picked less, so Emma's contribution made up the difference.

It wasn't until they were nearing the main part of the field, where Regina could collect from the community vegetables, that she began to fret at the looks people were giving her. She was used to being looked upon strangely, and even shunned, but these looks were judgmental, and aimed at the princess.

"Emma," Regina said under her breath as she quickly untied the fabric under her throat. "Would you please take my cloak? It's grown very hot." All she thought was if the girl's hands were filled, she wouldn't pick any more.

Except Emma was clever for a pampered princess. She took the cloak, Regina shivering a little as the warm weight left her shoulders, but then she looped the thing around her own neck, continuing to keep her hands free to help Regina.

"You have to stop," Regina hissed.

"Why? We done?"

"I'm not done. But you have to be. People are staring at you."

Emma shrugged. "Let them stare."

Regina sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine." She moved away from Emma. "I just need a few carrots." She walked to the section of the field where the root vegetables were planted and, after checking the green for health, plucked three of the dull orange vegetables from the ground.

Emma took the basket from Regina's hands once she had laid the carrots inside. "Looks good," she said, inspecting the many items. "What are you making for dinner?"

"Are you seriously inviting yourself into my home for a meal?"

"And if I was?"

"You know I can't refuse. You're the princess."

"How about this? I'll leave as soon as Daniel comes back."

Regina tried to take the basket back, to push Emma away physically without looking like that was exactly what she was doing. Emma's arms were clearly strong, as they hardly moved at all while Regina struggled mightily. She finally conceded, "As soon as Daniel returns."

"Unless he asks me to stay." Emma grinned; Regina felt the world's most colossal grumble rise in her throat, appalled at herself and appalled at Emma, because she knew...she _knew_ … Daniel would invite the princess to stay.

###


	11. Enter the Imp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma is still with Regina when Daniel returns home. Despite his invitation to stay for the meal, Emma leaves before Regina's happiness makes her any more unhappy. She is left to ponder the couple's situation as she returns to the castle where she has trouble with her parents once again. Daniel and Regina visit a seer about their problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel awful about how long this has taken to update. And I'm not perfectly happy with this chapter, but it is a rough emotional one, and that may just be my reaction to it, and it's actually an okay read.
> 
> To recap: You could read all the previous parts, but perhaps this is all you need for now... After preventing Daniel's death in the past, Emma's magic has dropped her into another alternate timeline where she is 18 years old and living with her parents in the Enchanted Forest. Regina is here also. The Dark Curse has not been cast. Regina is married to Daniel, and yet, happy endings don't quite seem right. What's a girl to do?

 

Emma had come back from the fields, trailing behind Regina, nursing a muscle spasm in her palm from the hard work. It hadn't seemed so difficult at the time, so focused was she on stepping carefully, doing only what Regina did - not making the other woman angry enough to order her away.

She had managed to keep to the side as Regina cleaned up from the fields and then made herself useful once more as Regina set about sorting and cutting the ingredients for an evening meal. It was meager, but the aromas reminded Emma so strongly of walking into the mansion back in Storybrooke so many times that she almost could close her eyes and imagine they were back.

She must have dozed, because when she jolted upright at the sound of hooves pounding the ground she had to blink twice to realize the Regina rushing to the door was not in one of her Storybrooke signature skirt suits, but a gray homespun dress.

"Regina! Regina!"

"Daniel!" Picking up her skirt, Regina flung open the door and rushed outside into the late afternoon sunshine. Emma reached the doorway and held herself upright even as her knees threatened to buckle at the sight of husband and wife reuniting.

Daniel swung down with practiced ease - reminding Emma of her own relatively recent clumsiness - from the saddle atop a sleekly beautiful brown gelding. He had moved barely three steps before Regina was in his arms, her arms reaching around his neck and her body pressed and clinging to his as their mouths magnetically came together.

Faced with Regina's obvious true love in the way they fit and clung together, Emma's resolve wavered. It now seemed selfish to change things again and bring Regina home to a non-existent Henry. The woman was happy here. It might not be Emma's vision of Regina's happiness, but what had her mother Snow said once? "Happy endings aren't always what we think they'll be."

Emma swallowed and shifted, intending to go through the house and leave out the back before Regina entered with Daniel, leaving the couple to their contented life. But the unexpected movement by the doorway drew Daniel's attention. His gaze found her even as she tried to slink back into the shadows unnoticed.

"Who's…?" He started forward, hand going to the hilt of a dagger tucked into his belt. Then his alarm faded as he recognized her and he threw his hands away from the weapons, inviting in a gesture of unmistakable welcome. "Princess Emma!"

Regina turned behind Daniel as he strode toward Emma, who noticed the way the other woman clung to his arm. He patted his wife's hand almost absently then detached and held out his hand again to Emma.

"What a great pleasure, princess!" he greeted her effusively. "What are you doing here?" He looked questioningly between Emma and Regina

"We had a planned lunch," Emma replied, keeping it simple.

Unfortunately Daniel took that as reprimand. He dusted at his clothing, and looked from Regina back to Emma, then took off his cap. He dropped his eyes as he approached her with rounded shoulders, petitioning and meek.

"My apologies, princess," he said, head down. "Your father required my advice on horses for your wedding gift. I told Ned to tell you why I had to leave so quickly."

"He told me," Emma replied, smiling tightly. She'd known what her father was doing, even if she wanted to laugh sadly at why he couldn't be further from the truth. She looked longingly at Regina. "I thought I would come spend the noon meal with Regina."

"You're welcome into our humble home anytime," Daniel said eagerly. "I assure you Regina is the finest cook in our entire village."

Emma watched him wrap his arm around Regina, his wife. Watching them brought a painful tightness to her chest. Regina's hand fell easily against his chest as she looked up at his face. The woman's pleasure at Daniel's presence was unmistakable. Emma recalled that look being given to her, another lifetime ago. She reacted to the soft scene shoving her fists into the pockets of her breeches. She should, she  _must,_  withdraw. Regina  _was happy_. "I should be going."

Daniel's head snapped up from nuzzling Regina's hair. "No, please. Stay for the evening meal. I have good news." He stepped back from Regina and rushed to his saddlebags. "The gelding was only part of your father's payment for my services today." He flipped open the leather flap covering the saddlebag and withdrew a heavy cloth pouch that bulged at the seams.

Regina's eyes widened at the sight; for that matter, so did Emma's. Her father couldn't have paid that just for horse advice.

Emma sputtered, "What was that for?"

Daniel opened the pouch and lifted several pieces, giving them to Regina. He then spoke with his gaze adoringly upon his wife. "Prince James was extremely pleased with my advice. The animals were of superior quality. Fine boned and healthy lines. There was this mare… You would have enjoyed seeing them," he told her.

Regina fingered the coins. "Why would he pay you so much?"

"He said it was past time he rewarded my many years of loyalty properly."

"This is dozens of times our yearly living," Regina said, her eyes narrowing with what Emma recognized as suspicion. "What additional tasks has he set you?"

"None. I am still his master of horses." He hugged her and kissed her. "But it will help us achieve dreams we have long held."

"What dreams?" Emma asked.

Regina spoke to Daniel over Emma's curiosity. "We have all we need."

Daniel looked at his wife and smiled benevolently. "The whispers will stop."

Regina looked stricken and pained. Her hands fisted at her sides and she inhaled and exhaled before staring at Emma and then turning on her heel. "Dinner is inside," she said in a brittle tone.

In bewilderment, Daniel followed his wife. "Regina?"

Left alone outside, Emma walked to her horse, mounted and turned its head quickly, uneasily leaving before she could screw things up any further.

* * *

Dismounting in the stables, Emma found Da…She shook her head before calling out for him. He was coming in from another barn, striding broadly across the open outer ward. He smiled beatifically at her and opened his arms. "Good afternoon, Emma. Are you going out for a ride?"

She neared and let him wrap his arm around her shoulders. She felt awash with indecision, both wanting and abhorring the comfort. "Just coming in," she said. "I rode out to town."

"Fancying something at the market?"

"Ran into one of the small holders," Emma said. "Assisted in some harvest."

"You're in breeches." He sounded surprised, having just noticed.

Emma nodded. "Better suited for work."

"You know you don't have to do that. I have great hope you will find your prince within the walls of the castle tonight," her father said.

"Dad," Emma drew him back from the archway entrance to the main castle.

He stopped, his hand automatically gently covering hers on his arm. His eyes searched hers. "What is it?"

"I went to see Regina…" David's look of confusion prompted her to clarify, "The lady I danced with last night."

"The stablemaster's wife," David supplied. He looked a little concerned. "Is she well?"

Emma inhaled. "She is well. But I think she is unhappy."

"Emma, you shouldn't concern -"

"But it does concern me -"

"They have property, a good living with her husband's position here," David began.

"Daniel says -"

"You ran into Daniel?"

"He came in after our time at the fields. Invited me to dinner."

David winced.

Emma ignored that and went on with her question. "What are the town whispers about them?"

He frowned and shrugged. "I have no idea."

"He's served a long time as the White stablemaster. Hasn't he talked with you?"

"Emma, you seem to forget, they're not nobility."

"So, you just don't care about their lives?"

"It's just not done, Emma."

Emma glared at him. "Stop that! You came from  _nothing_ ," she grumbled.

David grabbed her arm. "I told you not to say anything about that!" he hissed under his breath. Emma grimaced, but bore her father's anger in silence. He dropped her arm quickly when a scullery maid scurried past with a dead chicken.

"You  _made_  it, so you don't have to worry about anyone else?" Emma was frustrated. Her parents in Storybrooke had cared so much about the rest of the town. Here though they behaved like every pampered royal figure she'd ever read about in the storybooks.

"We take care of the kingdom's people," her father said. "Snow makes sure of it."

"How? Throwing money at their meager lives? They tend the fields but give most of it to those who live in the castle."

"And we protect the land." He shook his head. "You weren't like this just a few days ago. What's changed?"

"I'm seeing the  _truth_ ," Emma snapped. "Daniel and Regina-" She pushed her way into the castle, frustration riding her hard.

"I thought you only met that couple on the day of the ball?" Emma turned to see Snow had stepped into the inner ward, catching sight of them.

"Haven't you ever just clicked with someone?" Emma asked.

Snow paused as she neared them. "The woman's name...Regina, right?"

Emma nodded.

"I think she may be very familiar to me." Snow looked at Charming. "A young woman saved me when I was just a child on a runaway horse. But I never got the chance to thank her." Her eyes sheened with tears which surprised Emma. "My father and I … she wasn't there when we went back." Charming took Snow in his arms.

She collected herself and spoke more quietly to Emma. "Something had happened in the family home."

Her father addressed Emma over Snow's head. "Perhaps that is the gossip you referred to?"

"Gossip?" Snow asked.

"Daniel called them whispers," Emma explained. "Regina seems hurt by them." She hugged herself. "Would it be all right if I spent more time with Regina and Daniel?"

"Daniel's got his responsibilities here," David said hurriedly. "But," he added, "perhaps you can bring Regina here, have picnics in the outer ward."

"That sounds nice," Snow said eagerly. "Bring her to meet me. I can see if she is the same woman I remember." Emma's mother smiled indulgently.

"Uh, yeah, I'll see about that." Emma groaned, but her parents were already wrapped up in each other and walking away. Alone in the inner ward, she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, pushing back the threatening headache from all the threads of changed realities swimming in her head.

She still had no idea which one was truly the right one, but this one...this one was definitely wrong.

* * *

Regina stared at the invitation brought home the next afternoon by Daniel. "They want me at the castle?"

He smiled at her. "I'll bring you with me in the morning. You're to spend the entire day with the young princess."

Regina sighed. "So the queen wants a nanny for her princess. Don't they already have someone?"

"Actually I don't think so. Princess Emma seems to be managing quite well on her own."

"I have things to do around our home," Regina protested. She felt it would be wrong to spend more time in the company of the young princess. There was something about the way the blonde looked at her… She shook herself and handed back the invitation. "Tell them I simply cannot take time away from my own responsibilities."

"You can't refuse a royal invitation," Daniel said. "But look, we'll go see the seer tonight. Find out what his visions say about it."

"I don't want to know my future from a seer, Daniel."

"But we…" He trailed off. "Regina, I worry about you, sitting here alone day after day."

"I'm not bored," Regina said. "I care for our home. There is more than enough to do."

"I want you to be caring for our child," Daniel blurted.

Regina reeled back, feeling struck. Her voice, when she found it, was barely a whisper. "I know." She turned away. "I'm sorry I haven't made you happy in that way. I'm trying everything else."

"We haven't tried everything. Come with me to see the seer," Daniel implored. "Please."

Regina leaned hard on the back of the chair and bowed her head. Slowly she lifted her head. "All right." She swallowed. "All right, I'll get my cloak."

Daniel beamed, hugged her and grabbed her cloak himself, laying it over her shoulders and kissing her cheeks as he met her fingers tying the strings at her throat. "I love you."

Regina kissed him back fiercely forcing back the tears that threatened. "I know." She exhaled. "I love you, too."

* * *

In a cave on the westernmost edge of the White lands, a man of green-hued skin, scaled like a reptile smiled at the vision of a brunette woman and her husband mounting a horse. He looked around at the array of items scattered about the cavern's hewn shelves, vials and pouches, items gathered over a century's seeking. He sensed the darkness laying quietly in the heart of the one riding toward him. A crucial piece of his puzzle, though he knew, by this time, it should have been fully formed.

With a flick of his fingers, the looking glass image changed to the interior of White Castle. His divining potion said True Love resided in that castle. It had grown stronger in the last week, as if it had tapped into its power, begun accessing its potential.

"What have you done, dearie?" He pondered the many unclear images. He knew the queen, Snow, and her prince, Charming. He had followed the signs to bring them together when their courses were diverted unexpectedly. Somewhere within that castle now resided a reshaping force, just learning their potential.

Having eternity to work with hadn't made him a patient man. In many ways, however, he grew more impatient with the passing days and his goals remained out of reach.

"You will not cast the curse. Someone else will," he mocked his memory. "And you will not break the curse. Someone else will." He had thought Cora to be capable of casting his curse, but when the blasted woman took out her own heart, professing her love for him stood in her way of power, he knew he had chosen foolishly. That she vanished only meant he hadn't required getting rid of her himself. Messy busy pushing around other people's fates, he mused.

"What ho, inside! You have visitors, seer!"

He closed his eyes and poofed himself casually to the entrance of his cave, looking up at the man just dismounted from horseback, helping his lady wife down from the saddle.

"It's the middle of the night, dearie."

"We've brought tribute. We seek your Sight, seer."

He studied the downturned dark head of the woman. Familiar strands of her essence wafted from her. "And who are you?"

The man stepped in front of her, blocking his advance. "My lady wife, sir."

He closed his eyes, speaking what he had already seen. "You wish to ask me about children," he said.

"We have been married many years."

"Long enough for many of your contemporaries to have not only children, but grandchildren," he said, seeing it clearly. "And your lady wife, she's not getting any younger." The woman frowned at him. "But your age matters not."

"It does not," Daniel interjected. "Regina will make a wonderful mother, I know it."

Closing his eyes, the seer saw that, too, was true. "I see a son," he said. "First of the things I will need," he requested. "Your names."

"What could you do with that?" The woman spoke up. "We are nobodies."

"Oh, dearie, everyone is  _some_ body. I cannot see a future to which I cannot pin a name." The woman winced; the man held her hand.

"I am Daniel, stablemaster of the White stables. This is my lady wife, Regina."

"Regina…" Closing his eyes, he smiled. "Yes, I see." He grinned wider, seeing more. "I see a magnificent future for you, my dear."

"I told you, Regina, the princess's invitation  _was_ a sign. Things are turning around for us." He cupped his wife's cheek.

She tried to smile, but she turned quickly to him, pinning him with suspicion. "I don't need a  _magnificent_  future, imp." She rounded her shoulders. "My life is mine, my choices. I have my husband."

"But you have no children. What little cottage can be a home without children, dearie?" He flourished his hand, swirling the vision in his looking glass. Their eyes were drawn to the display, as he had wanted. He touched Regina's arm when they were not looking, getting a sense of the hidden power within the woman.

The touch was broken when Daniel plopped a stuffed bag of gold onto his table next to him. "We have been told of your price, seer. You will see it there."

"Gold? Children are more precious than any amount of gold, dearie."

"So how do we get one?" Daniel asked.

"I assume you've tried the usual way." He cackled at his own joke, watching his words redden Regina's cheeks, even as he felt the dark anger flare within her. Her power was untapped. He subsided, intrigued. "Of course you have. What you seek is a little  _magical_  assistance." He flourished his hands, and bowed low. "That will take a little sacrifice."

"What sort of sacrifice?" Regina asked; he would have applauded her suspicious mind if it wasn't at such cross purposes with his goals.

"Oh, dearie, I'll share that later. For now," he said, grabbing a small vial off the wall. "Take this with your meals." Daniel caught it out of the air. "It's for your wife, dearie. It will… allow the energy to flow."

Daniel pressed the vial into Regina's hands, cupping hers between his and kissing her soundly. "Thank you, seer. Thank you!"

He watched them mount and ride away. Closing his eyes, he saw the future swirling, a little less cloudy now. Regina was definitely meant to be part of his plan.

###


End file.
